In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among its list of greatest male stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Cagney grew up in a tenement on the Lower East Side of New York, where he learned Yiddish listening to his neighbors. It was a skill he displayed in the 1932 film Taxi.
“My childhood was surrounded by trouble, illness, and my dad's alcoholism, but as I said, we just didn't have the time to be impressed by all those misfortunes. I have an idea that the Irish possess a built-in don't-give-a-damn that helps them through all the stress.”
