NOAH BEERY JR.
August 10th, 1913 -- November 1st, 1994

Above: The most prolific of all serial sidekicks: the great Noah Beery Jr.

Son of a famous father and nephew of an even more famous uncle, Noah Beery Jr. could easily have spent his career in the shadow of his illustrious relatives, never becoming a well-known actor. Instead, he developed a unique persona of his own, a friendly, easygoing, homespun persona, akin to that of the legendary Will Rogers. Noah Beery Jr.'s characters always put you at your ease; you felt you could always trust him whatever role he was in. Sometimes he was simple bumpkins, other times more seasoned characters, but he was almost always a likeable good guy, in contrast to his dad, Noah Beery Sr. (covered in the Villains section) who specialized in rotters, and even to his uncle, Wallace Beery, who either played outright crooks or colorful con men types. In his own quiet, cheery way, Noah Beery Jr. attained a degree of respect in the acting field all his own; he's well known even today, thanks mainly to his marvelous performance as James Garner's father on TV's ROCKFORD FILES in the seventies. This great character actor, like several others, attained his start in the serial field, where he played sidekicks that were neither wholly comic nor wholly serious, but a perfect mixture of both.

Young Noah, born in 1913, made his screen debut with a small part as a little boy in MARK OF ZORRO in 1920, which featured his father in a major role as the nasty Sergeant Gonzales, as well as a couple other films. His parents seem not to have contemplated a show business career for him, though, as he was subsequently enrolled in Harvard Military Academy. He graduated in the late twenties, however, and returned to the world of film. After a couple of small roles, he landed his first serial role and his first (of two) top billed roles in HEROES OF THE WEST (Universal, 1932). He played Noah Blaine, the son of a determined railroad contractor (William Desmond) who aided his father in his attempt to lay down the transcontinental railroad in the face of attacks by hostile Indians and outlaw raiders. Noah's part was more of a co-starring role than a starring one, as he shared the action with Onslow Stevens, who played the railroad engineer and handled the romantic angle together with Beery's sister (Jacqueline Wells). Still, HEROES served as Noah's introduction to the world of the Western and the world of the cliffhanger at the same time, and in the ensuing years, he would make many many more films of the same kind.

Above: Onslow Stevens (far left) watches the reunion of, from left to right, Martha Matox, William Desmond, Jacqueline Wells, and Noah Beery Jr. in HEROES OF THE WEST (Universal, 1932).

Noah's first official serial sidekick role came the same year in Universal's JUNGLE MYSTERY. He and hero Tom Tyler played a pair of hunters who helped Cecilia Parker look for her lost brother in the wilds of Africa; unfortunately, I can't supply any further details on this serial, since it's among the handful of "lost" cliffhangers.

Above: Frank Lackteen operates on Tom Tyler while Noah Beery Jr. (in the pith helmet) watches sympathetically in JUNGLE MYSTERY (Universal, 1932).

Noah next journeyed over to Mascot, the poverty row studio that later became the nucleus of Republic Pictures. He appeared in two cliffhangers there. The first, a Foreign Legion thriller called THE THREE MUSKETEERS (Mascot, 1933), gave him a small role as Stubbs, the genial young mechanic of pilot hero John Wayne (just at the start of his own magnificent career), who was killed early on by the evil masked Arab leader El Shaitan. His other Mascot role was larger: the part of Nakomas, an Indian boy orphaned by outlaw raiders in FIGHTING WITH KIT CARSON (Mascot, 1933). To avenge his parents' murder, young Beery joined with Kit Carson (Johnny Mack Brown) to track down the raiders' leader, who was played by none other than Noah's real-life dad, Noah Beery Sr.

Above: Noah Beery Jr. tackles his dad, Noah Beery Sr., as Maston Williams jumps in to help the elder Beery in FIGHTING WITH KIT CARSON (Mascot, 1933).

Beery was back to Universal the next year for TAILSPIN TOMMY, an aviation serial based on the popular comic strip by Hal Forrest. The serial, literally adapted from several sequences of the comic strip and strung together with the continuing plotline of the evil Tiger Taggart's (John Davidson) attempt to take over Three Points Airline, featured Maurice Murphy as Tommy Thompson, the young mechanic who became a pilot under the tutelage of flyer Milt Howe (Grant Withers). Noah was Skeeter, Tommy's naive and affable grease monkey pal, who shared one high-flying cliffhanger after the other with him. The serial (the first to be based on a comic strip) was so popular that Universal followed it up with a sequel in 1935, TAILSPIN TOMMY IN THE GREAT AIR MYSTERY. While Murphy's role was taken over by Clark Williams and Withers' by Pat O'Brien (no relation to the Warner Brothers actor), Noah reprised his Skeeter part in the sequel, showing how well cast he had been in the role in the first place. It was simply impossible to find a better sidekick. This serial was a bit more globe-hopping in its approach than the first, as Tommy and Skeeter faced wild cannibals and exploding volcanoes along with the usual gangsters and thugs.

Above: Clark Williams and Noah Beery Jr. are placed under arrest by South American soldiers in TAILSPIN TOMMY AND THE GREAT AIR MYSTERY (Universal, 1935), a sequel to TAILSPIN TOMMY (Universal, 1934).

Sandwiched in between his two Tailspin Tommy serials was Noah's second and last starring cliffhanger, CALL OF THE SAVAGE (Universal, 1935). A jungle adventure similar to Edgar Rice Burroughs' TARZAN, the serial cast Noah as Jan of the Jungle, the son of a scientist who was separated from his father as a small boy and brought up in the wilds. Grown to manhood, Jan was forced to use his jungle training to defend himself against a gang of profiteers led by Walter Miller who were after the secret formula Jan's father had been seeking when he was lost in the jungle. Beery also took on himself the protection of damsel-in-distress Mona (Dorothy Short), who was, unbeknownst to herself, the heiress of the lost kingdom of Mu. With the help of a faithful chimpanzee named Chicma and the trustworthy native Borno (Harry Woods), Noah triumphed over Miller's thugs, the usurping ruler of Mu (John Davidson), and assorted jungle beasts in the best Tarzan tradition, locating his lost father in the process. The part of Jan was probably the most offbeat role of his career, but Noah nevertheless handled it well and proved that, had he chosen, he could have become as good a serial hero as he did a sidekick.

Above: Noah Beery Jr. protects Dorothy Short in CALL OF THE SAVAGE (Universal, 1935).

Noah was back to his traditional sidekick role for his next serial, ACE DRUMMOND (Universal, 1936). Once again he was a mechanic/sidekick for a pilot/hero, this time John King. The two of them teamed with scientist's daughter Jean Rogers (who had appeared in Noah's second Tailspin Tommy serial) to track down the mystery villain known as the Dragon, who was out to stop plans for an international airport being built in Mongolia. Noah’s character, Jerry, got himself into frequent scrapes through unfamiliarity with Mongolian customs, but in the climactic chapter it was Jerry who saved the day by wiping out the Dragon’s fighter squadron with the villain’s own death ray.

Above: Irate temple guards prepare to execute Noah Beery Jr., but Arthur Loft (left rear), Guy Bates Post (center rear) and Chester Gan (right rear) put a stop to the killing in the nick of time in ACE DRUMMOND (Universal, 1936).

Following some noteworthy character roles in films such as BAD LANDS (one of his few villainous parts), OF MICE AND MEN, and ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, Beery returned to his alma mater with RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY (Universal, 1942). Advertised as the "Million Dollar Serial", RIDERS was one of Universal's best cliffhangers and sported a great cast (including Dick Foran, Charles Bickford, and Buck Jones--whose daughter, Maxine, Noah had married a couple of years before). However, Beery himself was given a sadly limited amount of screen time; all in all, he got maybe five lines of dialogue in the entire serial. Happily, his final serial was a more fitting farewell: OVERLAND MAIL (Universal, 1942), another excellent Universal western, featured him as Sierra Pete, the happy-go-lucky sidekick of hero Lon Chaney Jr. (who gave a great performance in an atypical heroic role). Chaney, Beery, and Buckskin Bill (Don Terry) formed a dynamic trio as they went after the no-good outlaws who were attacking the mail coaches owned by Tom Chatterton and his daughter Helen Parrish. The three pals faced lots of exciting perils until they traced the renegade raids to businessman Noah Beery Sr., who was attempting to force Chatterton out of business so he could grab the mail franchise for himself. Interestingly, the two Beerys shared no scenes together except the final one, where Noah Jr. offered a mild epitaph for the deceased Noah Sr.: "He was one smart hombre." Nevertheless, it was a fitting goodbye to the serial world for both Noah and his dad.

Above, from left to right: Don Terry, Lon Chaney Jr., and Noah Beery Jr. in the top-notch OVERLAND MAIL (Universal, 1942)

Having now served his full apprenticeship in serials, Noah embarked on an illustrious acting career that would span the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, and finally end with his retirement in 1984. Ten years after this, in 1994, the beloved actor passed away at his home in California.

Few performers have ever earned the affection inspired by Noah Beery Jr. in the course of his long and respected career. And, as we have seen, that career started in the serials, where young Noah first developed the easygoing charm that made him a screen legend. However, no matter where he had began his career, good old Noah Beery Jr. would have made a mark on screen history. He was just that kind of a fella.