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Summer Under the Stars: James Cagney
TCM, beginning at 5 a.m.
Beloved actor and dancer James Cagney is celebrated today in Turner Classic Movies’ Summer Under the Stars. Director Orson Welles described Cagney as “maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of a camera,” and you’ll see what Welles was talking about with this day of films starring Cagney that span a variety of genres.
Some of the movies featuring the actor’s appearances in the gangster roles with which he is most identified will, of course, be featured, including Taxi! (1932) and the iconic White Heat (1949). But you’ll also see Cagney in his Best Actor Oscar-winning role as George M. Cohan in the 1942 musical biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy, in his Best Actor Oscar-nominated role in the romantic musical biography Love Me or Leave Me (pictured) (1955), as Nick Bottom in the 1935 adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and more. The day will conclude with the 1992 documentary James Cagney: Top of the World.