Former Broadway performer and playwright who began regular screen appearances, usually in hard-boiled comic character parts, in the late 1920s. The invaluable Gleason, often in acid comedy roles with more than a touch of Damon Runyonesque New Yorkness about them, justly received an Oscar nomination for his delightful Max Corkle in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941), and graced dozens of films before his death in 1959. He often worked with his wife Lucille Gleason; with their son, actor Russell Gleason they made a series of Higgins family comedies for Republic in the late 30s and early 40s.
Family
SON: Russell Gleason. Actor. Born 1908, died in 1945; committed suicide.
Another actor named James Gleason has credits in TV and films beginning in the mid-1970s; there is also a sound recordist of the late 1950s and early 1960s generally credited as James A. Gleason.
Tcm.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network.