- Attended Yale University, where he played football, graduating in 1903 with a B.A. and LL.B. He also attended Stewarttown University in Stewarttown, Ontario, Canada, where he earned an LL.D. He studied law and earned graduate and mining certificates, eventually joining a government geological survey through Mexico, Colorado and into the Rockies.
- Often acted in westerns whenever not playing Irish cops.
- Was the principal director of L. Frank Baum's Oz Film Manufacturing Co.
- Began as a singer in minstrel shows. In films with Carl Laemmle in New York from 1911.
- Character player, usually stern of demeanor, who appeared in hundreds of films, many of them westerns, from 1915-1951. He was long associated with the director John Ford.
- Taught acting at the University of Southern California during the mid-'30s. Among his students was USC basketball star Jerry Gracin.
- He is parodied in the upcoming stage musical, Topper, for the many times he played variations of cops.
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