Will Mahoney

William James Fitzpatrick Mahoney was born on February 5, 1894, in Helena, Montana, to rancher Michael Fitzpatrick and Mary Moran. His father died when Mahoney was two years old, leaving his mother to support the family through multiple jobs. She also had two children, Frank and Mary, from a previous marriage.

Mahoney made his first public appearance at age eight in Spokane, Washington. He and his brother Frank subsequently developed a joint act billed as the Mahoney Brothers, which took them on tour through the United States, Mexico, and Australia. Mahoney arrived in New York around 1921 and established himself as a tap and clog dancer and singer, becoming a frequent presence in vaudeville from the mid-1920s onward. By the early 1930s he had become the highest-paid variety star in the country. A signature element of his act, first performed in 1930, involved dancing across an oversized xylophone and playing it with hammers attached to his feet.

His Broadway career spanned from 1924 to 1955 and included appearances in George White's Scandals in 1922, Earl Carroll's Vanities in 1925, the musical Take the Air, Earl Carroll's Sketch Book in 1935, and Finian's Rainbow. The revival of Finian's Rainbow earned Mahoney a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1956. Mahoney was also active in Britain, performing on radio and appearing in British films.

Mahoney married three times. His first marriage, to Iva Mildred Willis at age 21, ended with her death in 1920. He married Sue Lillian Wilson in 1922 and later divorced her. In 1938 he married actress Evie Hayes, with whom he had toured Australia. The two appeared together in the 1939 film Come Up Smiling, after which Mahoney transitioned into theatre management, overseeing the Cremorne Theatre in Brisbane. American performers including Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Gary Cooper, and Artie Shaw attended productions there. Mahoney and Hayes also performed on Australia's Tivoli Circuit.

Following World War II, Mahoney returned to the United States to resume his performing career before settling permanently in Melbourne in 1958. There he continued working in musicals and revues and taught a generation of younger performers. He died in Melbourne on February 9, 1967.