page_title: Jeffrey Lynn
section_title: Early career and rise to fame: 1938–1941
hierarchical_section_title: Jeffrey Lynn / Film career / Early career and rise to fame: 1938–1941
caption_attribution_description: screenshot of Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney and Jeffrey Lynn from the trailer for the film The Roaring Twenties
context_page_description: Jeffrey Lynn was an American stage-screen actor and film producer who worked primarily through the Golden Age of Hollywood establishing himself as one of the premier talents of his time. Throughout his acting career, both on stage and in film, he was typecast as "the attractive, reliable love interest of the heroine," or "the tall, stalwart hero."
  Born and raised in Massachusetts, he attended Bates College, before working as a teacher. He was tapped to act in his first film in 1938, which convinced him to move to Hollywood, California. His second film–Four Daughters –propelled him into national fame sparking two sequels: Four Wives and Four Mothers, with Lynn reprising his role in each of them, along with Daughters Courageous, which included the same cast but had a different storyline. He was at the center of the Gone with the Wind screening controversy; he was noted as the top contender to play Ashley Wilkes, however, the director eventually chose Leslie Howard instead. Lynn was asked to join James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in The Roaring Twenties, a gangster noir that garnered him critical praise.
context_section_description: Lynn made his film debut in short Out Where the Stars Begin (1938). He had a supporting role in When Were You Born (1938) with Anna May Wong and a bit part in Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938) with Dick Powell.
  In April 1938 Lynn's career received a big boost when he was cast in a role originally turned down by Errol Flynn: one of the romantic male love interests in Four Daughters (1938) (first called Sister Act). Lynn appeared alongside the Lane Sisters, Claude Rains and John Garfield. The film was a huge hit.
  Public response was so enthusiastic that Lynn was promptly reteamed with Priscilla Lane in Yes, My Darling Daughter (1939) and then Daughters Courageous (1939), a film with the same director and stars as Four Daughters but a different storyline.
  After the success of Four Daughters, Lynn was screen tested for the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939). He was considered to be the front runner for the role, partly due to his physical resemblance to the character as written. Lynn was used extensively during the "Search for Scarlett" playing Ashley in the screen tests for many of the actresses who tried out for the part. David O. Selznick eventually cast the more experienced and popular Leslie Howard. It was during this time that he received typecasting as "the handsome romantic husband or boyfriend," "the attractive, reliable love interest of the heroine," and "the tall, stalwart hero."
  Warners gave him the third lead in Espionage Agent (1939) alongside Joel McCrea and Brenda Marshall, and a lead role in The Roaring Twenties (1939), a gangster film that reunited him with Four Daughters star Priscilla Lane, as well as James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. As one of a trio of friends, and the only one not to "go bad", Lynn won excellent reviews.
  Lynn reprised his Four Daughters role in Four Wives (1939). He was the male lead in A Child Is Born (1939) co-starring with Geraldine Fitzgerald, and he was reunited with Cagney in The Fighting 69th (1940), though billed beneath Pat O'Brien and George Brent. He played poet-soldier Joyce Kilmer.
  Lynn was Ann Sheridan's love interest in It All Came True (1940), battling Humphrey Bogart, and was third billed in All This, and Heaven Too (1940) with Bette Davis and Charles Boyer. Lynn was Olivia de Havilland's leading man in My Love Came Back (1940), replacing  George Brent.
  He was top billed in Money and the Woman (1940), a crime drama with Brenda Marshall. Lynn did a second sequel to Four Daughters, Four Mothers (1941), and was reunited with Fitzgerald in Flight from Destiny (1941).
  Lynn was offered a role in Singapore (also Jinx Woman) but turned it down and was put on suspension. It was lifted in December 1940 when he agreed to make Miss Pinkerton with Fitzgerald.
  He starred in Million Dollar Baby (1941) with Priscilla Lane and Ronald Reagan, was top billed in the war film Underground (1941), and was Constance Bennett's leading man in Law of the Tropics (1941). He was tested for the lead in Kings Row but the studio cast Robert Cummings.
  Lynn's final film before entering the army was the comedy The Body Disappears (1941), with Jane Wyman; Lynn was top billed. In 1941, Lynn was voted 7th in the "Top Ten Stars of Tomorrow" two spots behind then-actor and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
caption: Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Jeffrey Lynn in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
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