Two Years Before the Mast is a 1946 American historical adventure film directed by John Farrow and starring Alan Ladd, Brian Donlevy, William Bendix, and Barry Fitzgerald. It is based on Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s travel book of the same name and was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

William Joseph Shields, known professionally as Barry Fitzgerald, was an Irish stage, film and television actor. In a career spanning almost forty years, he appeared in such notable films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Sea Wolf (1941), Going My Way (1944), None but the Lonely Heart (1944) and The Quiet Man (1952). For Going My Way, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and was simultaneously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields. In 2020, he was listed at number 11 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.