BEERY, WALLACE

(1885–1949)

   The brother of Noah Beery and uncle of Noah Beery Jr., Wallace Beery had a huge frame, a bulbous face, and a twinkle in his eye when he smiled, all of which suited him to a large variety of roles in a very successful film career. Early in the silent era he was primarily typecast as the heavy and as such appeared in several silent Westerns. In James Cruze’s epic The Pony Express (1925), Beery played a comic role as Rhode Island Red. But Beery’s most substantial role was that of Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934), a film nominated for a best picture Academy Award. The role demonstrated Beery’s versatility as an actor as he alternated between a brutal outlaw leader bent on revenge and an idealistic revolutionary beloved of his men and country. Westerns have always been fascinated with the exoticism of Mexico just across the border, with all of its revolutions, and Beery helped establish the classic image of Pancho Villa in Western myth.