Biography
Edward McNamara (also credited as Edward C. McNamara and Edward James McNamara) was an American actor. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, he began his working life as a police officer there before pursuing a singing career as a baritone. He performed with Madame Schumann-Heink and later appeared on Broadway from 1926 and in films from 1929, frequently cast as Irish policemen or authority figures.
His screen credits include I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), The Strawberry Blonde (1941), The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942) and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), in which he played Sergeant Brophy. He was a longtime friend of James Cagney and appeared in several of the actor's films. McNamara died in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1944.
