Researching John Sheehan

He returned exclusively to the stage in 1917, where he remained until the advent of sound films. He returned to the screen with a featured role in the 1930 melodrama, Swing High, starring Helen Twelvetrees.

His more notable performances and roles include: the first talking version of the film Kismet (1930), starring Otis Skinner and Loretta Young; a featured role in 1934's Little Miss Marker, starring Shirley Temple and Adolphe Menjou; Michael Curtiz's Kid Galahad (1937), starring Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart; the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn romantic comedy Woman of the Year (1942); the classic biopic The Pride of the Yankees (1943), starring Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright; another 1943 biographical film, Yankee Doodle Dandy, starring James Cagney; the Abbott and Costello comedy Buck Privates Come Home (1947); and the last film to be released in which he appeared was 1952's Somebody Loves Me, starring Betty Hutton and Ralph Meeker, which was released several months after Sheehan's death.

While Somebody Loves Me was his last film to be released, the last film which Sheehan worked on was the 1952 Tracy and Hepburn romantic comedy Pat and Mike. Production on Pat and Mike was in early 1952, and it was released in June of that year, four months after Sheehan died.

He was born in Ballarat to clerk James Sheehan and Cecilia Leach. He attended St Patrick's College, Melbourne Teachers' College and the University of Melbourne, receiving a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education. He became a schoolteacher at Rushworth but soon enlisted in the AIF, serving during World War II in New Guinea and Bougainville. On his return he became a senior master at Ballarat High School. In 1952 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Ballarat. He was appointed Minister of Housing on 1 April 1955. The seat was split in two in 1955, and Sheehan was defeated contesting Ballarat South. On 17 August 1954 he had married Theresa Carmel Reid, with whom he had five children. He returned to his position at Ballarat High, and in 1959 moved to Ballarat East High School, of which he was deputy principal from 1968 to 1972. He returned to Ballarat High in 1972 as principal, holding the position until 1976. Sheehan died in Ballarat in 1984.