In Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), James Cagney played George M. Cohan, the Broadway showman whose songs became part of American life. Directed by Michael Curtiz, the musical biography follows Cohan from his childhood in vaudeville to his success as a writer, performer and producer.
For audiences who knew Cagney only as a gangster, the film was a revelation. He sang and danced with a confidence and joy that showed where his career had begun, and his performance captured Cohan’s showmanship without turning him into a caricature. The film’s wartime release also gave it a patriotic resonance that made it one of the most popular films of 1942.
Yankee Doodle Dandy won Cagney the Academy Award for Best Actor, and it remains the clearest proof of his versatility — the tough guy who could also carry a musical.