Arthur Shields (15 February 1896 - 27 April 1970) was an Irish stage and film actor.

Biography

Born into an Irish Protestant family in Portobello, Dublin, he started acting in the Abbey Theatre when still a young man. He was the younger brother of Oscar-winning actor Barry Fitzgerald. An Irish nationalist, he fought in the Easter Rising of 1916. He was captured and interned in the Frongoch internment camp in Frongoch, Wales, as were the prominent Irish revolutionaries Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith. He afterwards returned to the Abbey Theatre. In 1936, John Ford brought him to the United States to act in a film version of The Plough and the Stars.

He later returned to the U.S. and for health reasons, he decided to reside in California. He died at his home in Santa Barbara, California, aged 74.

Some of his memorable roles were in John Ford films. Shields portrayed the Reverend Playfair in Ford's The Quiet Man, opposite John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and his brother, Barry Fitzgerald. He played Dr. Laughlin in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon with Wayne and Joanne Dru, and appeared yet again with Wayne and Barry Fitzgerald in Ford's Long Voyage Home. His other films include: Little Nellie Kelly, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Fabulous Dorseys, Gallant Journey, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Drums Along the Mohawk, Lady Godiva, National Velvet and The River. He also made television appearances including a 1958 role on Perry Mason as Dr. George Barnes in "The Case of the Screaming Woman."

Selected filmography

• Drums Along the Mohawk - Reverend Rosenkrantz (1939)
• The Long Voyage Home - Donkeyman (1940)
• How Green Was My Valley - Mr. Parry (1941)
• The Gay Falcon - Inspector Mike Waldeck (1941)
• The Black Swan - The Bishop (uncredited) (1942)
• The Man from Down Under - Father Polycarp (1943)
• National Velvet (1944)
• Three Strangers - Prosecutor (1946)
• The Verdict - Rev. Holbrook (1946)
• She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - Dr. O'Laughlin (1949)
• Tarzan and the Slave Girl - Dr. E.E. Campbell (1950)
• A Wonderful Life - Short - Pastor / Narrator (1950)
• Apache Drums (1951) - Rev Griffin
• The Quiet Man - Reverend Cyril Playfair (1952)
• Pride of the Blue Grass - Wilson (1954)
• The King and Four Queens - Padre (1956)

Television

• Your Show Time - 26 episodes - The Bookshop Man (1949)
• The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure - 8 episodes - Boles (1956)
• Perry Mason - episode - The Case of the Screaming Woman - Dr. George Barnes (1958)
• Captain David Grief - episode - The Return of Blackbeard - Angus Macmor (1959)
• Bat Masterson - episode - The Conspiracy: Parts 1 & 2 - Dana Ruggles (1959)
• Maverick - episode - The Bold Fenian Men - Terence Fogarty (1960)
• Wagon Train - episode - The Amos Gibbon Story - Judge Tremayne (1960)
• Rawhide - episode - Incident of the Dust Flower - Sam Cartwright (1960)
• Bonanza - episode - The Stranger - Dennis (1960)
• Death Valley Days - episode - Loophole - Jebal McSween (1961)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]