Remembering Bruce Cabot

Bruce Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac on April 20, 1904 in Carlsbad, New Mexico. His father was a prominent local lawyer, Colonel Etienne de Bujac, and his mother was Julia Armandine Graves, who died shortly after giving him birth. Leaving the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee without graduating, Cabot worked at many jobs, including as a sailor, an insurance salesman, oil worker, surveyor, prize fighter, sold cars, handled real estate and also worked in a slaughterhouse. A meeting with David O. Selznick at a Hollywood Party started his acting career.

 
He played a soldier in “Ann Vickers” (1933). He then starred in the 1933 blockbuster “King Kong” (1933), which became an enormous success and established Cabot as a star. Cabot also played villains, as in “Let 'Em Have It” (1936) and “The Last of the Mohicans” (1936). He starred with Spencer Tracy in “Fury” (1936), and with Errol Flynn in “Dodge City”. A consistent box office draw, Cabot appeared in many movies at many studios before leaving Hollywood to serve in World War II.
 
After the end of World War II, Cabot headed back to Hollywood and fell in with John Wayne on the set of “Angel and the Badman” (1947) and became part of Wayne's circle, this relationship paying off in the 1960s when Wayne cast him in ten of his films.
 
Cabot appeared in only one Euro-western: “The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw” (1958) as Jack. His final screen appearance was in the 1971 James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever”.
 
Cabot died of lung and throat cancer at the actors home in Woodland Hills, California on May 3, 1972.
 
Today we remember Bruce Cabot on what would have been his 110^th birthday.