
James Donlan
Acting
Biography
James Donlan was an American stage and screen actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1929 and 1939.
Known For

Willie, as an assistant window-dresser, is the lowest man on the totem pole at a department store. To add insult-to-injury Willie is also the store's designated 'Fired Man."; when a disgruntled customer demands that somebody-must-be-fired, Willie is summoned and summarily fired, only to be rehired when the now-satisfied customer has departed. Willie inadvertently adopts a four-year-old orphan at a cost of ten-dollars a week, and things go from bad to worse since Willie doesn't make ten-dollars a week. But, with the help of Mary, a beautiful young nurse, Willie manages to turn some corners and improve his lot in life, albeit with some skids along the way.
Night Work

Managing Editor Brad Bradshaw refuses to run a story linking the disappearance of Frank Canfield with embezzlement of the bank. He considers Frank a straight shooter and he goes easy on the story. Every other paper goes with the story that Frank took the money and Brad is demoted, by the publisher, to the Heartthrob column - writing advice to the lovelorn. After feeling sorry for himself for two months, he takes the column seriously and makes it the talk of the town. But Brad still wants his old job back so he will have to find Canfield and the missing money.
Hi, Nellie!

Ordinary man-in-the-street Arthur Ferguson Jones leads a very straightforward life. He's never late for work and nothing interesting ever happens to him. One day everything changes: he oversleeps and is fired as an example, he's then mistaken for evil criminal killer Mannion and is arrested. The resemblance is so striking that the police give him a special pass to avoid a similar mistake. The real Mannion sees the opportunity to steal the pass and move around freely and chaos results.
The Whole Town's Talking

An alcoholic lawyer who successfully defended a notorious gambler on a murder charge objects when his free-spirited daughter becomes romantically involved with him.
A Free Soul

Fate brings a job at Boulder Dam and romance with a saloon singer into the life of a young man on the run.
Boulder Dam

A wax sculptor opens a new museum years after he is severely injured during a fire that destroyed his original collection. The disappearance of both people and corpses coincides with this grand reopening and leads a reporter to start investigating.
Mystery of the Wax Museum

A mother from Arkansas is very possessive of her grown son. To prevent him from getting married she has him drafted into WW I.
Pilgrimage

The son of a ruthless meatpacking king goes through a number of changes in ideals and motivations as he reluctantly inherits the mantle and falls in love.
I Loved a Woman

Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.
20,000 Years in Sing Sing

An Austrian soldier must choose between a wealthy fiancee and a new girl who takes his fancy.
Daybreak

Well respected local good guy, "Feet" Samuels finds himself heavily in debt due to an uncharacteristic gambling binge. Feet decides the only way to settle the bill is by selling his body to an ambitious doctor who agrees to allow him one last month to live life to the fullest, then kill himself.
A Very Honorable Guy

A reporter and his newspaper's attorney try to gather evidence that will put a notorious gangster behind bars.
Exclusive Story

Thirteen women who were schoolmates ask a swami to cast their horoscopes. The news they receive is not good for any of them.
Thirteen Women

President McKinley asks Lt. Richard L. Perry to go underground to identify some obviously very well briefed Mid-Western bank robbers based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
This Is My Affair

A group of air mail pilots risk their lives to deliver important mail through bad weather conditions.
Air Mail

Hildy Johnson is an investigative reporter looking for a bigger paycheck. When an accused murderer escapes from custody, Hildy sees an opportunity for the story of a lifetime. But when he finds the criminal, he learns that the man may not be guilty. With the help of his editor, Hildy attempts to hide the convict, uncover the conspiracy and write the scoop of his career.
The Front Page

A college professor and the school's star football player are both rivals for the same beautiful coed.
College Humor

In this engaging adaptation of James Gould Cozzen's novel The Last Adam, film icon Will Rogers portrays Dr. George Bull, a compassionate, highly regarded small-town physician who often prescribes a healthy dose of common sense! But when Bull begins dating a widow (Vera Allen), the local gossips misconstrue the story. To make matters worse, Bull's plainspoken manner earns him an enemy in the wealthy owner of a nearby construction camp. But once it's learned that the camp has caused illness by polluting the local water supply, the good doctor steps in to try to restore the town's health - and his reputation!
Doctor Bull

Independent Gilda is resigned fo a life of married tedium when Tom and George, having gotten past their jealousy, come to America and whisk Gilda away to live an exciting polyamorous life in Paris.
Design for Living

Western pardners Jeff and Cash find a baby boy in an otherwise deserted emigrants' camp, and clash over which is to be "father." They are still bitterly feuding years later when they own adjacent ranches. Bill, the foundling whom Cash has raised to young manhood, wants to end the feud and extends an olive branch toward Jeff, who now has a lovely daughter. But during a mining venture, the bitterness escalates. Is Bill to be set against his own adoptive father?