Actors With The Longest Gaps Between Movie Appearances – Looper

One of the most versatile actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, James Cagney earned his star as a hot-headed tough guy in films like “The Public Enemy” and “Angels With Dirty Faces,” which earned him the first of three Academy Award nominations. Cagney was adept at nearly every genre, including musicals like “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” for which he won the Oscar in 1942, as well as Westerns, comedies, period dramas, and even Shakespearean adaptations like 1935’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Cagney, who also served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild and co-head of his own production company, retired from acting after giving a bravura turn as a harried Coca-Cola executive in Billy Wilder’s 1962 comedy “One, Two, Three.”

He spent the next 20 years at his various farms on the East and West Coasts, where he pursued his interests in painting and horses, but a series of health setbacks, including a minor stroke, left him depressed. Concerned for his well-being, Cagney’s caretakers suggested that he accept a small role in Milos Forman’s 1981 period drama “Ragtime.” His critically praised turn as real-life New York Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo marked his first screen role in two decades, and he made one last screen appearance in the 1984 TV movie “Terrible Joe Moran.” Cagney died two years later at the age of 86 on March 30, 1986.