Juror #9: Joseph Sweeney

I think certain things should be pointed out to this man”

Joseph Sweeney’s “Juror #9” is the first to reverse field and support Juror #8’s plea for a more detailed deliberation. He does so not because he has been convinced that the boy is not guilty, but because he recognizes that it is the right thing to do. A rush to judgment is just what the whole legal system was created to avoid. He quickly becomes one of Juror #8’s strongest allies, though, as the imperfect and sometimes twisted arguments for conviction are gradually shown for what they are. Like Juror #2, he tends to be ignored or taken for granted by some others in the room, and he often finds that he must stand up and shout just be allowed to speak his mind. Sweeny’s character brings these experiences to some of the key questions about important prosecution witnesses, and helps to turn the tide.

Joseph Sweeney was born in 1884 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he spent some of his youth living upstairs from an aspiring young vaudevillian named William Claude Dunkenfield, who would later be widely known as W. C. Fields. The “eccentric juggler” was known to disturb the upstairs neighbor Sweeneys when the oranges he was juggling would hit the ceiling of his apartment. Joseph Sweeney, who was just four years Fields’ junior, had dreams of the stage himself, and was already appearing on Broadway the same year Prohibition was ratified.
His stage career was a moderate, but definite success. While he consistently got cast in show after show (13 Broadway productions between 1919 and 1931), there were no big hits. He never stayed with any one show for more than three months in that time, and none his credits were in historically well-known plays. Film appearances in “The Jaywalker” (1930) and “Where’s That Tiger” (1933) did nothing to drastically better his fortunes.
That would change in late 1934, when Sweeney opened alongside future “12 Angry Men” star Henry Fonda in the original production of the Broadway hit “The Farmer Takes a Wife.” The play and then the film would help turn Fonda into a huge star (but that was the last couple of articles). From that point in his career, the titles of the shows Sweeney appeared in become much more recognizable to the theatre enthusiast, including “A Slight Case of Murder,” and “Dear Old Darling.”

In 1940, Sweeney had an uncredited role as a butler in the smash film “The Philadelphia Story.” Blink and you’ll miss it. I did.
A more substantial break came in January of 1941 when Sweeney was cast to replace Boris Karloff in the runaway hit dark comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace.” The role Sweeney took, “Jonathan Brewster,” was the primary villain of the play and had to carry some trepidation for Sweeney and the whole production. You see, the script of the play contains several mentions by characters that the twisted psychopath Jonathan Brewster looked just like Boris Karloff, the actor Sweeney replaced. With Karloff in the role, the gag got big laughs that just don’t pay off with anyone else in the part. Despite this, “Arsenic and Old Lace” continued a lengthy run on Broadway, and Sweeney stayed in the role until the show finally closed 3 1/2 years later! “Arsenic and Old Lace” became a staple of the American Theatre, and is constantly in production somewhere in the world, gracing professional, community, and high school stages to delighted audiences every year.
From the closing of “Arsenic and Old Lace” in July of 1944 to the summer of 1951, Sweeney continued working steadily in stage productions, averaging one Broadway show a year. These included standouts “The Moon is Down,” and “The Rat Race.” With the advent and proliferation of the new medium of television, Sweeney joined the ranks of actors making the transition to the small screen. While the production schedule was even more grueling that what you find in the theatre, the performance schedule was far less taxing, and allowed an actor to play many more roles per year than before. Sweeney appeared in television programs like “The Ford Theatre Hour,” “The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse,” and “Out There.”
In 1953, Sweeney returned to the Broadway stage one last time for perhaps the most impressive credit on his resume. He originated the role of Giles Corey in the Arthur Miller stage classic “The Crucible.” Fellow future “12 Angry Men” castmate E. G. Marshall also starred in the play which would become even more important to American dramatic theatre than “Arsenic and Old Lace” is to comedy. You can see both Sweeney and Marshall in the publicity photo for the show below. Sweeney is in the foreground with his back to the camera and his hand to his ear.

I have left this picture rather large to give you a chance to read their names in the photo’s caption. Giles Corey is an important part in the play, full of humor and pathos, and he comes to one of the most memorable off-stage ends in the history of theatre. In an effort to compel him to answer the charge of witchcraft against him, the court in Salem “presses” Corey, placing large stones on him. But if he pleads one way or another, Corey’s lands will be forfeited and not go to his sons. So he answers them with two words: “More weight.” He dies crushed under huge stones, rather than give in to the twisted and manipulated witch trial court. “The Crucible” would go on to be named Best Play by the Tony Awards for 1953.

The following year brought the origin of another classic American drama, this one disguised in the clothing of a typical weekly small screen teleplay on the “Studio One in Hollywood” television program. “12 Angry Men” was first broadcast in this form on September 20th, 1954 and featured, among others, Norman Fell, Franchot Tone, Robert Cummings, Edward Arnold, George Voskovec, and Joseph Sweeney. Voskovec and Sweeney were the only men to star in both the original teleplay and in the 1957 film version. You can see them both seated at the jury table in the above screen capture from the 1954 version. At the time, the Reginald Rose teleplay was just another well-received television drama, and even when it won three Emmys later that year, no more was thought to come of it.

Meanwhile, Sweeney continued working in television and finally in a short string of prominent films. First came a film adaptation of the Sloan Wilson bestselling book “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” starring Gregory Peck. Sweeney played a longtime estate employee with a legal beef against the main characters and has two very substantial scenes opposite Gregory Peck and Lee J Cobb. Fans familiar with Sweeney from his virtuous and lovable old codger in “12 Angry Men” may be surprised at what a nasty and ornery cuss he plays here. It is hard to watch “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” without noticing some similarities with AMC’s show “Mad Men.” The film was a mild success, even though it appeared in a year strangely flooded by film titles starting with “The Man…” (“The Man with the Golden Arm,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “The Man Who Never Was”).

Later that same year, Sweeney appeared as the Reverend in the Glenn Ford western “The Fastest Gun Alive.” It is a small part in a picture that had little lasting impact. A young Russ Tamblyn performs an impressively athletic, but humorously anachronistic dance early in the film, and you can see Sweeney as one of the townspeople enjoying the strange dance on YouTube.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxsD2-wdU60] The final film on Sweeney’s resume would be one of the most enduring American movies of the 20th century, the United Artists remake of Reginald Rose’s jury room drama “12 Angry Men.” Sweeney reprised his role from the teleplay as the old man whose understanding of human nature and eyewear help steer the proceedings. As fine as the original teleplay had been, Rose decided on some minor rewrites for the film version, adding depth and nuance to many characters. One such rewrite was the revelation of two of the characters’ names in a film in which all others are simply known by their jury number. As the members of the jury stream out of the courthouse at the end of the film, Fonda is stopped by Sweeney.
Juror #9: (waving) Hey! (he comes closer) What’s you name?
Juror #8: Davis.
Juror #9: My name’s McCardle. (they shake hands, pause) Well, so long.
Juror #8: So long. (they leave)
It is a gloriously simple representation that while these men shared in something very important, they need only express their mutual respect with a handshake and then have nothing else to talk about. It is the ideal of the jury system put into a thirty second scene. These rewrites, combined with fantastic direction by Sidney Lumet, wonderful photography by Boris Kaufman, and riveting performances by Fonda, Cobb, Warden and others made the film a critical, if not box office, success. “12 Angry Men” was nominated for several Oscars and won awards from The Directors Guild of America, The National Board of Review, and the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival. In later years, as the film was consistently rerun on television, it would acquire a devoted fan base and a nearly unparalleled reputation as an actor’s film. Despite his other prominent work, “12 Angry Men” became the most lasting record of Joseph Sweeney as an actor.

Davis and McCardle
Sweeney worked consistently in television over the following six years, appearing in episodes of such standouts as “Father Knows Best,” “Route 66,” “Car 54, Where Are You?,” and E. G. Marshall’s drama “The Defenders.” He stayed busy right up until his death in November of 1963 at the age of 79. It is one of the real benefits of a life in acting that you never really have to retire if you don’t want to, and Sweeney took good advantage of it.
Read about all 12 Angry Men here-
Martin Balsam
John Fiedler
Lee J Cobb
E G Marshall
Jack Klugman
Edward Binns
Jack Warden
Henry Fonda 1
Henry Fonda 2
Ed Begley
George Voskovec
Robert Webber

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lebeau
Admin
11 years ago

I played Mortimer Brewster my senior year. I like to think I did Cary Grant proud. Although I know better. It wasn’t for lack of trying though.

lebeau
Admin
11 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

Well, sometime I’ll have to tell you the whole story… (I know I’m being a tease again.)
My acting days are long behind me. I was never cut out for it. But it was fun while it lasted. But hopefully your career will rival Sweeney’s for length.

Sue
Sue
11 years ago

I enjoyed reading all this. You see, Joseph Sweeney was my grandfathers’s brother so of course I’m doing research and collecting what I can on him. I recently found out that my china set was the gift he bought for my grandparents’ wedding…,Not too noteworthy, but just the same, pretty neat to have some momento. I have some great 8×10 photos of him and, but unfortunately was only about 8 when he died, so I don’t remember meeting him.

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