Joel McCrea

Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career as a leading man spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he became best known. McCrea appeared in over 100 films, starring in over 80, between 1927 and 1976. He starred in three Best Picture Oscar nominees: William Wyler's Dead End (1937), Alfred Hitchcock's espionage thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940), and George Stevens' romantic comedy The More the Merrier (1943). His other notable films included Preston Sturges' comedies Sullivan's Travels (1941) and The Palm Beach Story (1942), Bird of Paradise (1932) The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Bed of Roses (1933), These Three and Come and Get It (both 1936), and a number of Westerns, including Barbary Coast (1935), Wichita (1955) as Wyatt Earp, and Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962). With the exception of the British thriller Rough Shoot (1953) and film noir Hollywood Story (1951), McCrea appeared in Western films exclusively from 1946 until his retirement in 1976.