Researching James Dunn

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 struggled with alcoholism in his personal life. In 1945, having not worked for a major studio for five years, he was selected by director Elia Kazan for the role of Johnny Nolan, the dreamy alcoholic father in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The Oscar did not advance his film career, however, and while he still found roles in Broadway productions, he became a character actor on television. He had a regular role in the hit sitcom It's a Great Life from 1954 to 1956, and guest-starred in dozens of episodes of popular television series from the 1950s through mid-1960s. In 1960, his contributions to film and television were recognized with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Dunn was educated at St. Theresa's School, Liverpool and the London School of Economics and became an engineer. He was a councillor on Liverpool City Council from 1958 until 1965 and served as secretary of Liverpool Co-operative Party. He was a councillor for the ward of Kirkdale, a very working class area that was moving from voting Conservative to voting for the Labour Party.

Dunn was elected Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Kirkdale in 1964. He was a government whip from 1974 to 1976, and junior Northern Ireland minister from 1976 to 1979. From 1964 to 1970 he was a member of the Commons Estimates Committee and a member of the Commons Procedures Committe from 1964 until 1967. In 1980, he was convicted of shoplifting a sweatshirt, two ties and two armbands vauled at £15.13 from the Army & Navy Stores in Victoria and a map valued at 60 p from a stationers' shop in Artillery Row on 27 July 1979. At the time he had taking anti-depressant drugs. He had been followed out of the Army & Navy Stores by two store detectives who then saw him stealing the map. When they caught him he requested a quiet chat, but was turned over to the police. His trial took place on 12 May 1980, and Dunn pled not guilty. Although he admitted taking the goods he used as his defence his state of mind at the time of the incident. Dunn claimed that he had panicked when he saw the store detectives as he thought they were people he had dealt with in Northern Ireland. He was in poor health at the time, having had a heart attack in 1978, and had found his time as a minister, which involved regular trips to and from Northern Ireland, had left him exhausted. Additionally the evening before the offense he had attended a late-night debate in Parliament and consumed five half-pints of beer in the House of Commons bar. After this he had taken a sleeping tablet, but had only had "a fitful night's sleep". He said he was unable to remember exactly his actions the following day. Although he was found guilty, the judge accepted that his "appalling state of health" had caused him to act out of character and gave him a conditional discharge though he had to pay £100 costs.

In 1981, Dunn was among the Labour MPs who defected to the new Social Democratic Party. In 1983, he left the House of Commons when his seat was abolished by boundary changes. He died at the age of 59 in 1985.

Dunn had four children.

Born in Newark, on December 27, 1890, and privately educated, Dunn at first wanted to become an architect, an interest that remained with him all his life.

In 1917, he became assistant naval attaché to Haiti. In 1920, he was made a third secretary at the embassy in Spain, a post he held for two years. He was chargé d'affaires in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1922–24. After other assignments, he became a first secretary at the American embassy in London. From 1928–1930 he served as the first person to hold the office of Chief of Protocol of the United States. In 1930–35, served as counsel to the Commission for the Study of Haiti. Dunn was chief political adviser to the Berlin Conference in 1945; deputy at the American meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London, Paris and New York in 1945–46.

When representatives from 50 nations convened in San Francisco in April to June 1945 to form the United Nations Dunn 'worked hard behind the scenes to create a pro-French consensus' and to protect France's colonial interests in French Indochina. He was once called a 'fascist' by Eleanor Roosevelt for his views on colonial matters.

In 1946, he was a member of the delegation at the Paris Peace Conference.

Dunn was a governor of the Metropolitan Club and a member of the Knickerbocker Club, the River Club, the Regency Club and the Whist Club in New York, and of the Alibi Club in Chevy Chase, Md. Ambassador Dunn retired from the Service in 1956 with the rank of Career Ambassador.

He died in Florida in 1979.

Dunn was survived by his wife, the former Mary Augusta Armour; two daughters, Marianna Dunn of Manhattan and Cynthia Esterlechner of West Germany; three grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

He was born in Cathkin to farmer James Dunn and Honona McRae. He attended state school and Scotch College, Melbourne, becoming the paymaster of a coal mine at Wonthaggi, where he was a founding member of the local Coal Miners' Union. In 1906 he married Mary Buchanan, with whom he had five children. He later worked for the railways, and was stores administrator for the Federal Capital Commission's construction branch from 1915. There he organised the first Labor Party branch in the Australian Capital Territory. From 1932 he ran a wine saloon in Geelong, and was private secretary to John Dedman, a federal minister.

In 1950, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Geelong. He lost preselection in 1955 and stood unsuccessfully as an Independent Labor candidate for Geelong West. He rejoined the Labor Party later in life. Dunn retired to Cathkin and died at Alexandra in 1975.

In 1977 Dunn's report on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian troops in East Timor was released, prompting international attention. He alleged that American weapons had been used in the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975. He also argued that Australia's policy related to East Timor was inadequate.

His book Timor: A People Betrayed (published 1983) was a tribute to the tragedy of the Timorese. The book was launched by Gordon McIntosh at the Lakeside Hotel in Canberra. In a review published in Woroni, Dunn was praised for his sincere tone. J.A.C. Mackie, writing for The Canberra Times wrote that the book was "disappointingly unconvincing".

In the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours, Dunn was made a Member of the Order of Australia for "service to humanity as an advocate for the rights of the East Timorese."

He died on 31 January 2020; Prime Minister and former President of East Timor, Taur Matan Ruak, praised him as "one of the greatest international advocates for Timor Leste's self-determination".