FrameThrower · Actors · James Cagney
James Cagney
2 films · 130 frames · top-billed in 2 · 1939–1949
Born 17 July 1899 · New York City, New York, USA · died 30 March 1986
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American film actor. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of roles, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys". In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.
In his first performing role, Cagney danced dressed as a woman in the chorus line of the 1919 revue Every Sailor. He spent several years in vaudeville as a hoofer and comedian until his first major acting role in 1925. He secured several other roles, receiving good reviews before landing the lead in the 1929 play Penny Arcade.…
Awards
On FrameThrower we have: 2 films · 130 frames · top-billed in 2 · 1939–1949
- Academy Award for Best Actor1943
- Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
- Presidential Medal of Freedom1984
- AFI Life Achievement Award1974
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Kennedy Center Honors
How their films are shot
Measured across 130 frames from the 2 films we hold. This is the look of the work James takes, not a claim about any single frame — we index the cast of a film, never the people in a shot.
Across the 2 films we hold, 64% of their frames are night, 52% low key — the look of the work James takes.
Time of day
Lighting
Shot size
Camera angle
Mood
Films in the library
Every poster opens that film — stills, cinematography notes and colour palette.
A reference database for filmmakers
FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 130 frames from James Cagney's 2 films, and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.