James Patrick O'Malley (15 March 1904 – 27 February 1985) was an English actor and singer who appeared in many American films and television programmes from the 1940s to 1982, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley. He also appeared on the Broadway stage in Ten Little Indians (1944) and Dial M for Murder (1954).
The New York Times drama critic Theodore Goldsmith praised O'Malley's performance in Ten Little Indians, calling him "a rara avis, a comedian who does not gauge the success of his efforts by the number of laughs he induces at each performance".
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Career
Early years
Born into an Anglo-Irish family in Burnley, Lancashire, O'Malley sang with Jack Hylton and his orchestra in the United Kingdom from 1930 to 1935. Known at that time as Pat O'Malley, in 1930 he sang "Amy, Wonderful Amy", a song about aviator Amy Johnson, performed by Hylton's band.
At the end of 1935, Hylton and O'Malley came to the United States to record with a band composed of American musicians, thus emulating Ray Noble and Al Bowlly. The venture was short-lived. O'Malley remained in the US, known professionally as J. Pat O'Malley (to avoid confusion with another film actor named Pat O'Malley); he had a long and varied acting career, including the 1943 film Lassie Come Home as "Hynes".
Television career
O'Malley guest-starred in 1951 as a sheriff on the syndicated western series, The Adventures of Kit Carson. From 1950 to 1955, he appeared in five episodes of The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse. From 1951 to 1957, he was cast in eight episodes of another anthology series, Robert Montgomery Presents. Other television work from this period includes roles in Spin and Marty film (1955) and serial (1955–57) as the always-faithful ranch steward, Perkins.
In 1956, O'Malley guest-starred in "The Guilty", one of the last episodes of the NBC legal drama Justice. In 1958, he was a guest star in Peter Gunn (Season 1, Episode 3, "The Vicious Dog") as Homer Tweed.
O'Malley also appeared in the syndicated City Detective in the episode "Found in a Pawnshop" (1955). In 1960, O'Malley was cast in another syndicated series, Coronado 9. In 1959 and 1960, O'Malley portrayed a judge and a newspaper editor in three episodes of the ABC western series The Rebel about a roaming former Confederate soldier.
On January 6, 1959, O'Malley played a priest in the episode "The Secret of the Mission" on the syndicated adventure series Rescue 8.
The same year, O'Malley guest starred on the TV Western Gunsmoke as the title character "Print Asper" (S4E36).
O'Malley was cast as Walter Morgan in the 1959 episode "The First Gold Brick" of the NBC western series The Californians. In 1959-1960, he made eight appearances as Judge Caleb Marsh in Black Saddle. In 1959 he was cast as Dr Hardy in an early episode of Hennesey. In season 3, Episode 10 of the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive, "The Medicine Man", O'Malley played Doc. He also appeared in the role of a bank president in an episode of The Real McCoys titled "The Bank Loan", which was released January 15, 1959.
In 1959 and 1960, O'Malley appeared in the Disney series The Swamp Fox. In the first episode, he played a British guard at the gates to the fortifications of Charlestown. In subsequent episodes, he was listed as a co-star, playing Sgt. O'Reilly, one of Francis Marion's closest men.
Voice work
O'Malley contributed a number of accented voice roles to The Walt Disney Company such as the Cockney costermonger in the "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" sequence in Mary Poppins (1964); Cyril Proudbottom in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949); and the role of Colonel Hathi and the vulture Buzzie in The Jungle Book (1967). His voice can be heard in Alice in Wonderland (1951), in which he performs all the character voices in "The Walrus and the Carpenter" segment (excepting Alice), including Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Walrus, the Carpenter, and Mother Oyster. Actor Dick Van Dyke has said that O'Malley was his dialect coach on Mary Poppins, attributing his widely criticized Cockney accent in that film to O'Malley.
Personal life
O'Malley and his wife Fay, married in 1936, they remained married until his death in 1985. They had
two children.
Death
O'Malley died of cardiovascular disease at his home in San Juan Capistrano on 27 February 1985, aged 80.
