Bruce Cabot
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| Bruce Cabot | |
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| Born | Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac April 20, 1904 Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA |
| Died | May 3, 1972 (aged 68) Woodland Hills, California, USA |
Bruce Cabot (April 20, 1904 – May 3, 1972) was an American film actor. He is best known as Jack Driscoll in King Kong (1933). He was married twice, to the actresses Adrienne Ames and Francesca De Scaffa. He died in Woodland Hills, California from lung cancer and throat cancer.
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[edit] Early life
Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA to French Colonel Etienne de Bujac and Julia Armandine Graves, who died shortly after giving birth to him. After leaving the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee he worked a wide variety of jobs, including sailor and insurance salesman, and doing a stint in a slaughterhouse.
[edit] Early career
During the course of his career Cabot appeared in almost one hundred features, including The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937) with Wallace Beery. He made his film debut in 1931 in the movie "Heroes of the Flames". He tested for the lead role of The Ringo Kid in John Ford's popular Western Stagecoach (film) (1939). John Wayne got the role becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history.
Although Cabot was prominently featured in the blockbuster King Kong (1933 film) in 1933, he was not able to maintain a career as a lead actor but was a prolific supporting player. He was a villain in the '30s, playing a gangster boss in "Let 'Em Have It" (1936) and the Native American brave Magua after Randolph Scott in The Last of the Mohicans (1936), he supported Spencer Tracy as the leader of a lynch mob in "Fury" (1936). A freelance, he appeared in movies at many studios before leaving Hollywood for military service.
[edit] World War II
Cabot worked for the United States Army Military Intelligence overseas during World War II. He was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and the Air Transport Command Operations Officer in Tunis. While there he was implicated by the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps in a gold smuggling ring that shipped Nazi gold to Brazil[1].
[edit] Career after the war
After the war, he continued to work steadily. He met John Wayne on the set of Angel and the Badman (1947) and the two became very good friends. He became a first choice for supporting roles in John Wayne's movies. The twelve later Wayne films in which they appeared together were The Best of the Badmen (1951), The Comancheros (1961), Hatari! (1962), McLintock! (1963), In Harm's Way (1965), The War Wagon (1967), The Green Berets (1968), Hellfighters (1968), The Undefeated (1969), Chisum (1970), and Big Jake (1971).
Cabot's final film appearance was in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
[edit] Trivia
- The character of "Bruce Baxter" in the 2005 remake of King Kong was based on Cabot.
- The 2005 remake includes a dedication to the other two lead actors in the 1933 original, but not to Cabot.
