British actor Jimmy Hanley was something of a manufactured star. The Rank Organisation, anxious to create a juvenile actor to carry the lightweight romances and musicals that were so much a part of the British filmgoing scene, developed the teenaged Hanley into what historian Leslie Halliwell described as "the boy next door." Hanley made his film bow at age 16 in The Red Wagon (1934), and continued to appear in such adolescent affairs as Boys will be Boys (1935) and There Ain't No Justice (1937). Jimmy's roles matured along with the actor, and in 1944 he could be seen as Williams in Laurence Olivier's Henry V. In 1949 Hanley settled down for two years' worth of appearances in the Huggett Family series costarring former musical hall headliner Jack Warner. Jimmy Hanley perservered in second leads and character parts until his final appearance in The Lost Continent (1968).
by Hal Erickson
biography
