Trivia

Katharine Hepburn was a friend of McCrea and his wife, actress Frances Dee. Hepburn reportedly felt he was one of the best actors with whom she had worked and was disappointed his career wasn't more successful. She reportedly believed McCrea should have been ranked alongside Spencer Tracy or Humphrey Bogart.

Well-respected as a horseman, he was regarded as one of the two best riders in Western films along with Ben Johnson, who had been a real cowboy.

Met the real Wyatt Earp in Hollywood in 1928 and ended up playing the iconic lawman in Wichita (1955) .

A very young McCrea was advised by Will Rogers to put the money he made from acting into real estate, a venture that made the novice actor a millionaire.

His first encounter with movie-making came on a Ruth Roland serial that unfortunately was saddled with a leading man who could not ride well. McCrea, an outstanding horseman since he was nine, doubled for the actor at $2.50 a day and was given a job wrangling for the rest of the shoot.

The grandson of a western stagecoach driver who had fought against the Apaches, he raised his own horses, was a passionate outdoorsman and large-scale rancher, invested wisely in livestock and real estate.

Bette Davis liked McCrea very much and pressed him to co-star with her in an adaptation of Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome." McCrea thought it too downbeat to be successful. A disappointed Davis called him "a cowboy psychiatrist" and referred to him as that from then on.

He was notoriously modest about his own acting abilities, often bordering on a soft-spoken contempt.

A big sight gag in Sullivan's Travels (1941) was the juxtaposition of the big McCrea with his leading lady, Veronica Lake, who apparently was 16 inches shorter. For some shots, however, Lake had to stand on a box so their heads could be seen in the same shot.

Admitted late in life that he made much more money in real estate investments than he ever did in movies.

Katherine DeMille and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. were his classmates in school.

He died on his 57th wedding anniversary.

Awarded two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--for Motion Pictures at 1719 Vine St. and for Radio at 6241 Hollywood Blvd.

Many believe that starting with The Virginian (1946) he appeared exclusively in Westerns until the end of his career, but there is actually one exception. Shoot First (1953) is a spy thriller set in modern-day England, although its title makes it easy to mistake for a Western upon cursory examination of his filmography.

Attended high school with future director Jacques Tourneur who would later direct him in Stars in My Crown (1950) (one of McCrea's personal favorites) and a pair of 1955 releases, Wichita (1955) and Stranger on Horseback (1955).

In 1920, he lived with his parents at 7755 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles. In 1930, he lived with his parents at 243 South Rockingham Avenue, Los Angeles. His father, Thomas P. McCrea, was a secretary for the Los Angeles gas and electric company. His mother, Lou Whipple McCrea, was a professional Christian Science practitioner.

He soon realized after losing the lead in The Real Glory (1939) to Gary Cooper that as long as Samuel Goldwyn had both he and Cooper under contract, he would always come out second in the studio's choice roles. When he refused to re-sign with Goldwyn, the producer warned him that he'd "never work in this town again!" After that, Goldwyn always referred to the actor as "Joel McCreal." McCrea signed with Cecil B. DeMille for Union Pacific (1939) at Paramount.

McCrea turned down the lead in The Impatient Years (1944), which would have reunited him with his The More the Merrier (1943) co-stars Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn. He refused to play a serviceman of any type, telling a reporter, "If I'm too old to be called, I was too old for that kind of show.".

Among movies that he turned down: Spitfire (1934) with Katharine Hepburn, The Impatient Years (1944), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Intruder in the Dust (1949), The Story of Will Rogers (1952).

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1969.

He turned down roles that he felt contradicted his personal moral code, such as The Postman Always Rings Twice. Because of this, he nearly turned down Ride the High Country when it was suggested he play the part of Westrum. Fortunately, Randolph Scott agreed to play Westrum and McCrea took the part of Judd, a character who he said closely reflected his own values.

Starred in three Best Picture Oscar nominees: Dead End (1937), Foreign Correspondent (1940) and The More the Merrier (1943).

He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Sullivan's Travels (1941) and Ride the High Country (1962).

Was interviewed by Carol Burnett for the Hollywood High School newspaper of which she was the editor.

Father, with Frances Dee, of David, Peter, and Jody McCrea. Grandfather of Wyatt McCrea.

McCrea played the lead in NBC Radio's "Tales from the Texas Rangers" from 1950 to 1952. The program was a western police procedural based on real cases from the Texas Rangers.

Despite being among the best known actors of his generation, at the time of his death in 1990, McCrea was a resident at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, a charitable organization dedicated to the welfare of indigent movie professionals.

On August 21, 2019, he was honored with a day of his film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.

Graduated from Hollywood High School.

He was a staunch political conservative who was actively involved with the Republican Party literally until the end of his life. He made his last public appearance at a party fundraiser for California governor Pete Wilson.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 574-575. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

Paramount produced a promotional short about the musical scoring of the 1937 feature "Wells Fargo". Featured in the short were the movie's director Frank Lloyd, composer Victor Young, musical director Boris Morros and actors Bob Burns, Porter Hall, Frances Dee, and Joel McCrea. The short was narrated by Gayne Whitman.

His surname is pronounced "MC-Cray", it is constantly mispronounced as different ways.