page_title: James Dunn (actor)
section_title: Success in Hollywood
hierarchical_section_title: James Dunn (actor) / Success in Hollywood
caption_attribution_description: English: Press photograph of Sally Eilers and James Dunn in "Bad Girl" (1931)
context_page_description: James Howard Dunn, billed as Jimmy Dunn in his early career, was an American stage, film, and television actor, and vaudeville performer. The son of a New York stockbroker, he initially worked in his father's firm but was more interested in theater. He landed jobs as an extra in short films produced by Paramount Pictures in its Long Island studio, and also performed with several stock theater companies, culminating with playing the male lead in the 1929 Broadway musical Sweet Adeline. This performance attracted the attention of film studio executives, and in 1931, Fox Film signed him to a Hollywood contract.
  His screen debut in the 1931 film Bad Girl made him an overnight box-office star and he was cast as the lead in a succession of romantic drama and comedy films. In 1934, he co-starred with Shirley Temple in her first three films. In 1935, at the height of his popularity, he broke his studio contract two years before it expired and became a free agent. With musicals on the wane in the late 1930s, he was cast in a series of B movies and began struggling with alcoholism in his personal life.
context_section_description: Dunn's Broadway performance attracted the attention of film studio executives. In 1931, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which conducted its screen tests at Fox Film's Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, called Dunn in for a screen test. A Fox Film employee asked if they could also test Dunn, and had him read a scene from the stage production of Bad Girl. While MGM was not impressed with their result, Fox director Frank Borzage liked Dunn's screen test and wanted to cast him in his upcoming film version of Bad Girl. Dunn signed a film contract with Fox a few days later and relocated to Hollywood; his mother came to live with him the following year. 
  Dunn made his screen debut in Bad Girl (1931), which catapulted him and co-star Sally Eilers to "overnight fame". A Baltimore Evening Sun review wrote: "Without Dunn, Bad Girl would be just another movie. With him, it's something that provokes chuckles, tears, laughs, sighs and everything else that a nice little movie hopes to provoke". The Los Angeles Times called Dunn's star turn "triumphant",  asserting that "no performance has lately equaled the impression made by this rather plain young man, who, aside from having a likable personality, scores a major hit by his ability as an actor". 
  Within a year Dunn was considered "one of the top 10 box office draws". Dunn and Eilers were re-teamed in Over the Hill (1931), Dance Team (1932), Sailor's Luck (1933), and Hold Me Tight (1933). Dunn also played the lead in Sob Sister (1931), Society Girl (1932), and Hello, Sister! (1933). By the end of 1933, he was being referred to as "America's boy friend".
caption: Dunn and Sally Eilers in Bad Girl
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