James Cagney died on Easter Sunday at 86 at his farm in Dutchess County, New York
Screen legend James Cagney died on Easter Sunday, March 30, 1986, at his farm in Dutchess County in Upstate New York.
Gene Siskel, in his obituary, wrote, “The cause of death was not disclosed.” Nor did the New York Times nor Los Angeles Times report a cause of death.
Cagney had been released from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City just days earlier after being treated for diabetes and a heart ailment, according to the Los Angeles Times obituary.
“They said, ‘You just take him home,’ ” said Marge Zimmerman, who was described in the L.A. Times as Cagney’s “friend and manager.” With Cagney were Zimmerman, her husband, Don, and Cagney’s wife of 64 years, known as Willy, according to the UPI and L.A. Times obituaries.
In his obituary, Gene Siskel described Zimmerman as a “controversial confidant” because some said she “maintained total control over Mr. Cagney’s final years.”
UPI reported that Cagney suffered a stroke in 1977 and also reported Cagney had experienced a heart attack in 1984.
The New York Times obituary said that Cagney in 1974 “became the first actor to receive the Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute for major contributions to films and for timeless artistry” and that he also received Kennedy Center Honors in 1980 as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984. Siskel wrote that in March 1974, Cagney “was given the second annual Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute.”
The New York Times reported that Cagney’s funeral was held at St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church in New York on April 1, 1986, and that Cardinal John O’Connor had offered St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but the family preferred a “simpler service.” The Times said Gov. Mario Cuomo and wife Matilda and New York Mayor Ed Koch attended the service and that pallbearers were Ralph Bellamy, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Floyd Patterson and Milos Forman.
An article about James Cagney days before his death.
Cagney was born on New York’s Lower East Side on July 17, 1899. He was a three-time Oscar nominee for Best Actor, winning for 1942’s “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” one of the greatest performances ever on film and the movie Cagney called his favorite, according to his obituaries. He was also nominated for “Angels with Dirty Faces” (1938) and “Love Me or Leave Me” (1955).
He retired in the early 1960s but was talked into returning for one more film role, “Ragtime,” in 1981. Siskel’s obituary curiously states that Cagney ”received an Academy Award nomination for the cameo role, a nomination that was as much a love letter from his fellow professionals as anything else.” But Cagney did not actually receive an Oscar nomination for that role. “Ragtime” did receive eight Academy Award nominations, however.
The New York Times obituary said Cagney viewed Method Acting with disdain, citing a passage from his autobiography: “You don’t psych yourself up for these things, you do them.”
Siskel wrote that Cagney was 5-8.
Siskel quoted Jimmy Stewart as saying of Cagney, “He’s been one of the biggest names of all in motion pictures,” and, “He was tremendously versatile as far as acting was concerned, and he was an enormous asset to the motion picture industry.” Siskel quoted Charlton Heston as saying Cagney was “an absolutely unique performer” who had “riveting energy.”
President Ronald Reagan issued a statement calling Cagney a “classic American success story” and “the best at whatever he did” and added: “Nancy and I have lost a dear friend of many years today and America has lost one of her finest artists.”
(November 2026)
