Anyone who has watched a lot of movies from the 1930s through the early 1960s would likely recognize his face, even if they don’t know his name.
Joe Sawyer was a character actor who appeared in more than 200 movies. From 1954 to 1959 he played the part of Aloysius “Biff” O’Hara, the tough as nails, but kind-hearted cavalry sergeant on the TV series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. What many people also don’t know is that Joe Sawyer came from Guelph.
He was born Joseph Frederick Sauers (also spelled Sauer) in Guelph on August 29, 1906. His mother, Lavinia (nee Bolton) had married his father, Joseph – a German immigrant who was a butcher – in Guelph in 1904. Joseph Sr. died at the age of 24.
Young Sauers attended school in Guelph, but every summer he went to Saskatchewan to work on his uncle’s farm. While still in his teens, he went to California.
He graduated from Hollywood High School and enrolled in the University of Southern California where he became interested in drama. Gilmore Brown of the Pasadena Playhouse saw Sauers in a play and had him audition for a part in a production of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara. That led to Sauer’s involvement as actor, writer and director in over a hundred Pasadena Playhouse productions.
On Brown’s advice, Sauer went to New York. He appeared in numerous Broadway shows, and in 1930 he married Jeane Wood, the daughter of Hollywood director Sam Wood. That marriage was short-lived. Sauer was also unhappy with the low pay he received in New York. He returned to California and signed a contract with the studio of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Sauer’s first part in a feature film was a small, uncredited appearance in 1931 in The Public Enemy, a gangster movie that starred James Cagney. It was the beginning of a long career in which the actor from Guelph established a reputation as one of the most reliable supporting-role performers in Hollywood.
He appeared in films of almost every genre, including musicals and comedies, but was especially in demand for westerns, war movies and crime dramas. His beefy face, stocky build and “beady eyes” gave him just the right look for roles as villains and tough guys. His slightly high-pitched voice also helped him stand out from the other screen “heavies.”
Sauers played army sergeants, outlaws, cops, gangsters and sea captains. If a film with a sports-related story needed an actor to play the part of a hard-nosed coach, Sauers got the call. Even though he was of German descent, his characters were often Irish.
Like so many other film actors, Sauers thought it was necessary for him to change his name. He found that his American colleagues kept mispronouncing it “Sowers” and even “Sewers.” Therefore, Joseph Sauers became Joe Sawyer.
As Joe Sawyer, he appeared in many of the great, classic films of the time: The Petrified Forest, The Westerner, Sergeant York, The Roaring Twenties, The Grapes of Wrath and They Died With Their Boots On, to name a few. He shared the screen with some of the biggest stars of the era, including Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Bette Davis, Ida Lupino, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, Loretta Young and Jane Russell. His circle of close friends included John Wayne, with whom he fished and played poker, and Bela Lugosi.
In 1937, Sawyer married a starlet named June Golden. She was 10 years younger than Joe, but was the love of his life. They remained together until her untimely death from leukemia at age 44 in 1960.
Sawyer made guest appearances on several TV shows, most notably Frontier Doctor, Maverick, Peter Gunn, Sugarfoot, Surfside 6 and Bat Masterson. June’s death devastated Sawyer, and he said he was retiring from the movies. However, his buddy John Wayne talked him into making cameo appearances in the films North to Alaska and How the West Was Won. Wayne said it would help him to “forget some things.”
In contrast to the hard-boiled characters he portrayed in films, Sawyer was an avid reader who was a well-known patron of some of the best bookstores in the United States. He was a painter and a musician, and he loved travel. His son Riley said he was equally at home on a passenger liner or an ocean freighter.
When Sawyer wasn’t acting in movies and TV shows, he was involved in the booming Los Angeles real estate business. He was a key participant in the building of shopping centres and a hospital, and personally helped to construct houses in an L.A. suburb.
Sawyer lived his final years in Ashland, Oregon. He died there from cancer on April 21, 1982. The actor from Guelph who made a name for himself in Hollywood lives on in old movies along with fellow tough guys like Bogart and Cagney.
