McNally, Stephen

NakNally was born July 29, 1911 in New York . After graduating from Fordham Law School in New York, he practiced law for several years ^[1] , after which he “decided to fulfill his old dream and become an artist”. Starting his artistic career under his real name Horace McNally ^[2] , he played in several performances in New York, and in 1942 he moved to Los Angeles ^[1] .

After signing a contract with Metro Goldwin Mayer , in 1942-43, McNally played the role of the negative characters in several outstanding films, such as the detective comedy Murder at the Central Station (1942) and the comedy with Laurel and Hardy 's Aerial Raiders "(1943) ^[3] . Under the name of Horace McNally, he also played supporting roles in the military musical For Me and My Girl , in the military drama Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) and the musical comedy western Western Girls Harvey (1946) ^[1] .

In 1946, “a tremendous rise came in his career, after he changed his acting name to“ Stephen McNally and made his screen image more rude ”; he began to play “notable roles of both villains and“ cool “heroes” ^{[2] [3]} .

McNally is especially remembered for the roles of the negative characters in the films Johnny Belinda (1948) and Winchester 73 (1950) ^[2] . In Jean Negulesco ’s drama Johnny Belinda, he played the villain who raped a deaf-mute heroine (for whose role Jane Wyman won an Oscar) ^[1] , and in the classic western Anthony Mann 's Winchester 73 (1950), he played the role of a criminal opposing the protagonist performed by James Stewart .

In the years 1948-58, McNally played prominent roles in a series of genre paintings, this period was the most fruitful and successful in his career. In 1948, he played the role of a German war criminal, who is hiding in the ranks of the French foreign legion in Indochina , in the adventure thriller " The Scoundrel Regiment " (1948). In Robert Siodmak ’s film Noir Crisscross (1949), McNally played a small positive role as a police lieutenant and longtime friend of the protagonist ( Bert Lancaster ), trying to warn him against fatal communication with gangsters. McNally again appeared in the positive image of the director of the communal center in the crime drama City Beyond the River (1949), which tells about the murder of a teacher by members of a youth hooligan group in Manhattan . In the same year, in the noir drama “ Lady Gambling ” (1949), McNally played the owner of a casino in Las Vegas , which draws a respectable woman ( Barbara Stanwick ) into gambling.

In Joseph Mankevich ’s social noir drama “ There Is No Way Out ” (1950), McNally played an important role as the chief physician of the municipal hospital department, who provides support to a novice black colleague ( Sidney Poitier ) in an acute racial conflict between city residents. The noir melodrama Woman on the Run (1950) spoke of the factory director (McNally), who seeks to kill his wife ( Aida Lupino ) for her rich inheritance. In the film Noir Tidal Tide (1951), it was a gangster ( Richard Conte ) who was hiding on a fishing boat after killing a rival; in this film, McNally played the cop who is tracing the killer.

The action of the post-war noir thriller Henry Hathaway “ Deep Courier ” (1952) takes place in several countries of Eastern Europe, where the American diplomatic courier ( Tyrone Power ) randomly finds himself in the center of a secret operation against Soviet agents, led by the head of the army counterintelligence (played by McNally). In the detective horror film " Black Castle " (1952), McNally appears as the ominous Austrian Earl, in whose possession the British gentleman is searching for his missing friends.

The noble thriller Share of Seconds (1953) tells of two criminals who escaped from prison (one of them is played by McNally), who take hostages and take refuge from persecution in a ghost town. The action of the criminal thriller " Cruel Saturday " (1955) takes place in a small mining town, where a group of visiting guests (one of them is played by McNally) plans and carries out a bank robbery.

The paranoid noir thriller Five Hours of Hell (1958) talks about a fired employee of a rocket fuel plant who, in a fit of insane revenge, decides to blow up the plant and thereby poison the whole city. He is confronted by the chief engineer of the plant (McNally), whose wife ( Colin Gray ) the criminal takes as a hostage. In the crime thriller Johnny Rocco (1958), gangster Tony Rocco (McNally), along with his son Johnny, is forced to hide from his own gang after Johnny witnessed the murder.

McNally also starred in the Battle Zone thriller (1952), which takes place in the Korean War , in Don Siegel ’s rather unusual western , Silver Creek Duel (1952), in the adventure thriller about pursuing a criminal in the mountains of California “The Bullet is Waiting ” (1954), as well as in Robert Wise ’s Western “ Praise to the Bad Man ” (1956) with James Cagney ^[2] .

Since the mid-1950s, McNally began to work a lot on television. “He played the main roles in a couple of television series, but not one of them was particularly remembered, and was not imprinted in the minds of the audience” ^[2] .

In 1956-57, he played different characters in three episodes of the religious television series " Crossroads " (1956-57) ^[4] . In 1961, McNally played the lead role of a newspaper reporter investigating corruption cases in the television series Target: Corruption (35 episodes) ^{[3] [4]} .

McNally also played in separate series of such popular television sterns as “ Caravan of Wagons ” (1959, 1 series), “ Texan ” (1959, 1 series), “ River Boat ” (1960, 1 series), “ Rawhide ” (1961, 1 series), “ Virgin ” (1963 and 1971, 2 series) and “ Smoke from the trunk ” (1967, 1 series) ^[4] .

In 1964, McNally starred in one of the films of the series “ Alfred Hitchcock’s Hour, ” in 1965–68 in the 6 episodes of the drama “ Run for Life, ” in 1968–70 in the 5 episodes of the detective drama “ The Name of the Game, ” where The investigation is conducted by the publisher. McNally also starred in separate episodes of the crime drama Ironside (1970), Manniks (1971), Mission Impossible (1969-72, 2 episodes), FBI (1973), Police Story (1973-77 , 2 episodes) and Starsky and Hutch (1975-77, 2 episodes) ^[4] .

McNally played his last roles in the TV series Charlie's Angels (1979), Fantasy Island (1978-80, 2 episodes) and Milend Heights Secrets (1980) ^[1] .

McNally was married, he had eight children. He died on June 4, 1994 in Beverly Hills , California, from heart failure at the age of 80 ^[1] .

• Stephen McNally at IMDB
• Stephen McNally at Allmovie
• Stephen McNally at Turner Classic Movies