Academy Award Best Actor · birth-card coordinate
James Cagney's Birth Card: The Jack of Clubs
The Creative Messenger
A birth card is a calendar coordinate for the month and day. It is not fortune-telling and does not predict an Academy Award.
In the record
James Francis Cagney Jr. (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer. The birth-card coordinate for July 17 is the Jack of Clubs — a calendar position, not a forecast of the 1943 Best Actor — Yankee Doodle Dandy win.
Academy Award record
- 1943 Best Actor — Yankee Doodle Dandy
The Jack of Clubs coordinate
James Cagney's birthday maps to the Jack of Clubs (The Creative Messenger). Card Blueprints treats that as a 365-day coordinate: solar value = 55 − (2 × month + day), and the year is unused. It is not a prediction about an Academy Award and not a verdict on James Cagney. The card's own language, quoted as system copy rather than biography: You bring a new angle and you let someone pressure-test it before it ships.
James Cagney in the public record
On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances. Cagney is remembered for playing multifaceted tough guys in films such as The Public Enemy (1931), Taxi! (1932), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), City for Conquest (1940) and White Heat (1949), finding himself typecast in the early years of his career. He was able to negotiate dancing opportunities in his films and ended up winning the Academy Award for his role of George M. Cohan in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth on its list of greatest male stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Orson Welles described him as "maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of a camera". After making his debut in 1919, he spent several years in vaudeville as a dancer and comedian and played his first major acting role in 1925.
Summarised from the lead section of the Wikipedia article James Cagney (CC BY-SA 4.0). No biographical facts were written for this page beyond that article.
Where the record meets the Ace of Spades
A card is a calendar coordinate, not a cause. What follows sets one line of the card's own published language beside one sentence of the sourced record, paired by a documented rule. It is a resemblance offered for the reader to weigh — not a claim about James Cagney, and not a forecast of an Oscar.
Cards in James Cagney's fixed path
Birth card and karma
- J♣ — Birth Card: The Creative Messenger
- 10♥ — Karma — Environment: The Community Heart
- J♦ — Karma — Displacement: The Successful Messenger
Life Spread (Mercury → Result / Cosmic Reward)
- 9♦ — Life Spread — Mercury
- 7♠ — Life Spread — Venus
- 2♣ — Life Spread — Mars
- K♣ — Life Spread — Jupiter
- 4♥ — Life Spread — Uranus
- 4♦ — Life Spread — Neptune
- 2♠ — Life Spread — Pluto
- 8♥ — Life Spread — Result / Cosmic Reward
Planetary ruling card, karma and Life Spread
- A♣ — Planetary Ruling Card: The Creative Pioneer
- 2♥ — PRC Karma — Environment: The Loving Partner
- Q♣ — PRC Life Spread — Mercury: The Nurturing Leader
- 10♠ — PRC Life Spread — Venus: The Completed Mind
- 5♣ — PRC Life Spread — Mars: The Dynamic Innovator
- 3♦ — PRC Life Spread — Jupiter: The Success Communicator
- A♠ — PRC Life Spread — Saturn: The Truth Pioneer
- 7♥ — PRC Life Spread — Uranus: The Reflective Heart
- 7♦ — PRC Life Spread — Neptune: The Skeptical Investor
- 5♠ — PRC Life Spread — Pluto: The Restless Mind
- J♥ — PRC Life Spread — Result / Cosmic Reward: The Romantic Messenger
Birth card from the month and day. Karma cards are fixed to the birth card. The planetary ruling card comes from the sun sign's ruling planet — the signs with two rulers carry two. The Life Spread is the birth card's fixed row of nine in the Life Spread — the cards that colour each 52-day period for life. Planetary period and long-range cards move year by year and are not shown on a static page.
You say the true thing early, before it has to become a crisis to be heard. Your mind is oriented toward finding what's real beneath appearances. You question everything. You're the one willing to challenge comfortable lies for uncomfortable truths.
Cagney is remembered for playing multifaceted tough guys in films such as The Public Enemy (1931), Taxi! (1932), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), City for Conquest (1940) and White Heat (1949), finding himself typecast in the early years of his career.
Paired on shared wording: early, finding. This line comes from the Saturn position of the A♣'s Life Spread.
Also on the record
- Al Jolson was sufficiently impressed by his performance in 1929's Penny Arcade that he bought the rights to it, securing Cagney's part in the Warner Bros. adaptation of the play.
- This marked the beginning of a lengthy, albeit turbulent association with the studio.
- Cagney's fifth film, The Public Enemy, became one of the most influential gangster movies of the period.
- He became one of Hollywood's leading stars and one of Warner Bros.' biggest contracts at the time.
Other winners with this card
- Claudette Colbert — 1935 Best Actress — It Happened One Night
- Elizabeth Taylor — 1961 Best Actress — BUtterfield 8; 1967 Best Actress — Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Ellen Burstyn — 1975 Best Actress — Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
- Jean Dujardin — 2012 Best Actor — The Artist
- Jennifer Lawrence — 2013 Best Actress — Silver Linings Playbook
- Joanne Woodward — 1958 Best Actress — The Three Faces of Eve
- Marie Dressler — 1932 Best Actress — Min and Bill
- Mikey Madison — 2025 Best Actress — Anora
- Simone Signoret — 1960 Best Actress — Room at the Top
FAQ
- What is James Cagney's birth card?
- The Jack of Clubs. July 17 maps to that card through the public Card Blueprints formula. The year of birth is not used.
- Does a birth card predict an Oscar?
- No. These pages are coordinates, not fortune-telling. A birth card names a calendar day in a 52-card year. It does not forecast awards, character, or fate.
- Where do James Cagney's dates come from?
- Birth date 1899-07-17 is the day-precision date on James Cagney's Wikipedia infobox, verified against Wikidata P569 (CC0, day precision, Gregorian preferred). The two sources match. Winner identity comes from the Wikipedia Best Actor / Best Actress lists, which cite Oscars.org ceremony pages. Year-only dates and Wikipedia↔Wikidata conflicts are dropped, not guessed. Page hooks and evidence come from the Wikipedia REST summary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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Sources: Oscars.org (AMPAS ceremony record) + Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0 (Best Actor list, Best Actress list, James Cagney) + Wikidata CC0 (Q94041). Birth date 1899-07-17 is the Wikipedia infobox day, verified against Wikidata P569 (match).