The Dead End Kids / Bowery Boys
Every member of the Dead End Kids / Little Tough Guys / East Side Kids / Junior G Men / Gas House Kids / Bowery Boys in order ...
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- Billy Halop's show business career started on radio in the 1920s and carried over to stage work on Broadway. There, in 1937, he and other teenage cast members of the stage hit "Dead End" were brought to Hollywood by Samuel Goldwyn for the film version of the play, which was a tremendous hit. Halop and some of the other teenage cast members went on to do a series of films at Universal as the Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys while some of the others worked at Monogram in a series as the East Side Kids. Halop left the group in the early 1940s to seek a career on his own, but could only land parts in B pictures. His career was also hampered by a long string of marital and financial problems and a lifelong struggle against alcoholism. Toward the end of his career, he had a recurring role as Munson, the owner of the cab company where Archie Bunker worked part time, in All in the Family (1971). His last years were spent making a living as a male nurse.
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- Soundtrack
The 14th of 16 children born to an air conditioning repairman, Henry Richard Hall (he got the name "Huntz" from a brother who said his large nose made him look German) was anything but the tough street kid he played in the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys films. He made his stage debut at the age of 1 in a play called "Thunder on the Left"; after graduating from a Catholic grammar school, he attended New York's famous Professional Children's School, was a boy soprano with the Madison Square Quintette, and appeared in an experimental 1932 television broadcast. Actor/director Martin Gabel got him an audition for the play "Dead End", and Hall got the part because he could imitate a machine gun to playwright Sidney Kingsley's satisfaction. Hall appeared in a total of 81 East Side Kids/Bowery Boys features and serials, more than any other actor. In 1940 he married 18-year-old dancer Elsie May Anderson (they divorced in 1944). During WWII Hall enlisted in the Army, and after his discharge returned to Hollywood, where his first jobs were in war films playing soldiers (for his impressive work in A Walk in the Sun (1945) he received the New York Theatre Critics Circle Blue Ribbon Award).
In 1948 Hall found himself in the same kind of jam as did Robert Mitchum -- getting arrested for possession of marijuana, but he was acquitted by a jury. After the trial Hall married showgirl Leslie Wright. In the early 1950s, Hall and former Bowery Boys actor Gabriel Dell teamed up and for a "Hall and Dell" nightclub act that was so successful it cost both men their marriages; in 1953 Hall's and Dell's wives both sued for divorce, claiming the men thought more of the act than they did of them. In 1954 Hall was arrested for fighting with the manager of a building where he was attending a party; apparently the party was too noisy and the manager told the occupants to quiet down. Hall took offense at this, a fight ensued and Hall was arrested for assault, for which he paid a $50 fine and was put on probation. In 1959 he was arrested on a drunk driving charge. Having stayed out of trouble for quite some time now, Hall has been content in retirement, with occasional film and television work (not that he needed the money; in addition to owning 10% of the Bowery Boys pictures, Hall made some wise oil and gas investments that paid off handsomely).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bobby was raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn. By the time he was four and a half, he could act, tap dance and play the Saxophone. He made his stage debut in 1930 and film debut at Warner Bros./Vitaphone in 1931. He also reportedly had a bit part in the 1934 Eddie Cantor film, "Kid Millions". He then appeared on Broadway in "Dead End", which opened on October 28, 1935. He left the show in mid-November 1936 to appear in the The Samuel Goldwyn Company film version of "Dead End". Warner Brothers studios signed the all of the Dead End Kids to contracts. At the peak of his career, Bobby made $1,500 a week, owned a $150,000 home in Beverly Hills and was the sole support of his mother, two brothers a sister and a niece. In 1940, Bobby returned to Universal to appear with several other Dead End Kids in The Little Tough Guys series. Later the same year, Monogram featured him in his first East Side Kids film, "Boys of the City". In 1943, Bobby was drafted. He served as a foot soldier in the 97th Infantry until 1945 with his only film appearance being the East Side Kid's "Bowery Champs" (1944), playing himself in a running gag. In 1946, Bobby appeared in the first Bowery Boys picture, "Live Wires". But, after eight films he left because he was forced to take a backseat to Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. In March of that year, he married Lee, and in 1949, they had a son, Robert Jr. Bobby worked sporadically in film and television afterwards. He tried a nightclub act, then he found additional work as a bartender, door-to-door photograph salesperson and he later worked as an oil driller in Coalinga. In 1957, he and Lee divorced, and in 1958, he declared bankruptcy when he failed to pay alimony and child support. On August 25, 1965, Bobby collapsed at the home of a friend he had been living with. Already a heavy drinker, he was admitted to a Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles for treatment for Cirrhosis of the liver.- Actor
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Leo Gorcey's parents were actor Bernard Gorcey (born 1888) who stood 4' 10", and Josephine Condon (born 1901), who stood 4' 11" and weighed 95 pounds; they worked in vaudeville in New York. In 1915, 14-year-old Josephine gave birth to Fred. In 1917, Leo was born, a large baby at 12 lb. 3 oz.; as an adult he would be 5' 6". In 1921 his brother David Gorcey was born. In 1935, Leo and David appeared in the stage play "Dead End." In 1937, this was made into a movie, and Leo became one of the busiest actors for the next 20 years -- from 1937-1939 he starred in seven Dead End Kids movies, from 1940-1945 in 21 East Side Kids films, from 1946-1956 in 41 Bowery Boys movies.
In 1939, Leo married 17-year-old dancer Kay Marvis, who appeared in four of his movies. They divorced in 1944 after five years of marriage; she went on to marry Groucho Marx. In 1945, Leo married Evalene Bankston; they divorced in 1948. Leo was to have paid her $50,000 in a divorce settlement; however, when two detectives she hired broke into his home, he retaliated by firing his gun at them. They sued, and Leo countersued for illegal entry and won $35,000 back. In 1949, Leo married Amelita Ward, whom he met while filming Smugglers' Cove (1948). Their marriage produced Leo Gorcey Jr. in 1949, and a baby girl they named Jan (after Leo's producer and manager, Jan Grippo) in 1951. They divorced in 1956. That year Leo married his young nanny, Brandy, who was taking care of his two kids. They had a baby girl, Brandy Jo, in 1958. The couple divorced in 1962. Leo went to the altar one last time in February, 1968, marrying Mary Gannon. He stayed married to her until his death on June 2, 1969.- Actor
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The son of an Italian immigrant doctor, Gabriel "Gabe" Dell began his career singing in a boys church choir and then on a children's radio show. He made his stage debut in the play "Dead End" and, with the other juvenile members of the cast, was called to Hollywood for the film version. Dell was one of the more unusual members of what came to be known as the East Side Kids/Dead End Kids/Bowery Boys in that when he appeared in many of their films, he, unlike his colleagues, didn't always play a member of the gang. He often played a reporter, or a cop, or even a gangster, somebody who had either befriended the gang or used to be one of them but got out.
Dell took a leave from the film business during WW II and served in the Merchant Marine for 3-1/2 years. When he returned, he played in a few more of the Bowery Boys series but made his final film with them in 1950 and struck out on his own. He took roles in Broadway plays, formed a nightclub act with former East Side Kid Huntz Hall and studied for three years at the Actors Studio. He worked steadily in television and was a regular cast member of the The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1956). He alternated between TV and film parts, with one of his best roles being that of a sardonic hit man with a sense of humor in director Phil Karlson's action packed Framed (1975).- Bernard Punsly auditioned for the 1935 play "Dead End" on a lark - he had absolutely no show-business experience whatsoever, had never studied acting and had no desire to be an actor. He said that show business seemed like it might be fun, so he figured he'd give it a shot. To his surprise he was picked for he play, and when it turned out to be a huge hit, was called to Hollywood with the rest of the juvenile cast for the film version. While Punsly appeared in most of the "Dead End Kids" films made after the play, he didn't participate in most of his colleagues' "extra-curricular activities" - while they were out partying and getting into trouble with the law, Punsly would go home after a day's filming and read, mainly medical books, as he always wanted to be a doctor. His lack of film-industry ambition is reflected in the fact that he appeared in only two films outside of the Dead End Kids series, one was 'The Big Broadcast of 1938' and the other was 'Junior Army'. And even the, though 'Junior Army' was not a Dead End Kid movie, it still had in its cast fellow Dead Enders Billy Halop, Huntz Hall and Bobby Jordan. Punsley left the series in the early-40s to join the army, where he received his medical training. Upon his discharge he enrolled in the University of Georgia, eventually attaining his life's dream of becoming an MD. He returned to California, but not to a film career - he opened up a medical practice in Torrance. Punsly said that he never watched his old films - not because he had any regrets about making them, but because, as he said, he grew out of them.
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Hal E. Chester was born on 6 March 1921 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Crashout (1955), School for Scoundrels (2006) and Curse of the Demon (1957). He was married to Virginia Wetherly. He died on 25 March 2012 in London, England, UK.- Actor
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This one-time wiry, curly-haired juvenile actor of 30s Depression era films grabbed major focus toward the end of his acting career as 50s space hero Tom Corbett on the smaller screen, then moved away from the limelight finally seeing his future in the cards.
He was born Frank M. Thomas, Jr. on April 9, 1921, the only child of acting Manhattanites Frank M. Thomas and Mona Bruns. Well-established on the New York stage, his parents encouraged their young son into the business. The young actor first conquered Broadway in the early 30s appearing with Mildred Natwick and James Stewart in "Carry Nation" (1932) at age 11. He made a few more Broadway appearances, including Little Ol' Boy (1933) and "Thunder on the Left" (1933) before tackling films, making his debut creating his stage role in Wednesday's Child (1934) as the teenage son of Karen Morley and Edward Arnold. Both of his parents appeared in minor roles. Frankie went on to star in the sentimental tearjerker A Dog of Flanders (1935), then headed the cast as the titular young hero searching for his father in Africa in Tim Tyler's Luck (1937). Although he was just one of the boys in MGM's Boys Town (1938) and just one of the Little Tough Guys (a branching off of the "Dead End Kids") in Little Tough Guys in Society (1938), he managed to grab a co-starring role and become a brief bobbysoxer crush playing Ted Nickerson, little Bonita Granville's dry-humored, sleuthing boyfriend, in the four-episode "Nancy Drew" mystery film series, which ran from 1938-1939. He played tough in such movies as Angels Wash Their Faces (1939) and a number of military cadet types in such films as On Dress Parade (1939), Flying Cadets (1941) and The Major and the Minor (1942) before military duty itself called, signifying the abrupt end of a seemingly promising start as an adult film actor.
He served with both the Navy and the Coast Guard during WWII. Upon his discharge, he moved to New York and found steady radio work (over 1500 programs) as well as parts on early TV daytime such as the 15-minute serial A Woman to Remember (1949), which was the first five-times-a-week soaper to evolve. He received lasting fame and cult identification, however, the following year when he was cast in the title role of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (1950), as a cadet in training for the elite Solar Guard, 400 years in the future. An All-American hero to children nationwide, sci-fi was a huge rage at that time and he stayed with the show for five years. It was a 15-minute program that aired live three times a week.
Following this peak of fame, Frankie gave up acting altogether and wrote for radio and TV. He also produce the "Four Star Theater" for a time. Remaining a bachelor for much of his adult life, he lived a rather enviable Omar Sharif existence as a bridge master who taught recreational bridge while playing on the circuit with all the other master players. In addition to that, he continued to hone his writing talents as a mystery novelist. In the late 1980s, he met and married wife Virginia who had two children from a prior marriage. His wife died in 1997. Frankie passed away of respiratory failure in Sherman Oaks, California nine years later.- Actor
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Leo Gorcey's younger brother, David Gorcey is not usually thought of as one of the "original" Dead End Kids, but he did have a small role in the 1935 Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's "Dead End" - and he is the person responsible for getting his brother Leo a part in the play. Ultimately this led to Leo's becoming a movie star while David played supporting roles and bit parts. Although David is not in the movie Dead End (1937), he appears in more of the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys movies than anyone else except Huntz Hall. Later David became a clergyman who specialized in helping troubled kids. According to David Hayes' and Brent Walker's book "The Films of the Bowery Boys", David Gorcey's funniest role is in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950).- Actor
- Soundtrack
A fairly well-known child actor who never made it to the ranks of a Jackie Cooper or Freddie Bartholomew, Jackie Searl nevertheless gained a film following in the 1930s. A bratty counterpart to Jane Withers, the blond, freckled, clean-cut Jackie was born in Anaheim, California in 1921 and started on L.A. radio in "The Children's Hour" at the age of three. By the end of the 1920s, film beckoned and Jackie hit it big playing mean little Sid Sawyer in the early Mark Twain film classic Tom Sawyer (1930). Paramount Pictures promptly signed the youngster up and he followed this with Finn and Hattie (1931), Huckleberry Finn (1931), Skippy (1931), Topaze (1933), and as Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland (1933). Infamous at playing sissified brats, obnoxious squealers, and sandbox bullies, he was a natural scene-stealer and aptly labeled on the Paramount sets as "The Kid Everybody Wants to Spank." He continued playing secondary parts into his teens with roles in Ginger (1935), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), That Certain Age (1938), and Small Town Deb (1941). He joined the service in WWII and tried to resurrect his career following his discharge, but had a tough time of it. In the 1960s he played character parts, nominally as minor heavies, in such films as The Couch (1962), and Shotgun Wedding (1963) and on TV dramas. He retired in the 1970s and died in 1991.- Actor
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William Benedict was active in the drama department of his Tulsa, Oklahoma, high school and, at the height of the Depression (1934), decided to relocate to California. At first, he wanted to be a dancer, but when he discovered that dancers were a dime-a-dozen in Hollywood, he concentrated on acting. He made his film debut in Fox's $10 Raise (1935) and went onto the Fox payroll as a "featured player". After leaving Fox, he played some of his larger parts in serials and in the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys features in which he was a regular. During his half-century-plus career, Benedict has had roles in practically every type of movie; there's only one thing that the ex-hoofer might have enjoyed doing in a movie, but never had the chance: "Strange as it seems, I've never once danced in a picture!".- Special Effects
Charles Duncan was born on 23 July 1912 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), The Phantom Planet (1961) and The Cosmic Man (1959). He died on 7 December 1984 in Burbank, California, USA.- Actor
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Jackie Cooper was born John Cooper in Los Angeles, California, to Mabel Leonard, an Italian-American stage pianist, and John Cooper. Through his mother, he was the nephew of actress Julie Leonard, screenwriter Jack Leonard, and (by marriage) director Norman Taurog. Jackie served with the Navy in the South Pacific toward the end of World War II. Then, quietly and without publicity or fanfare, compiled one of the most distinguished peacetime military careers of anyone in his profession. In 1961, as his weekly TV series Hennesey (1959) was enhancing naval recruiting efforts, accepted a commission as a line officer in the Naval Reserve with duties in recruitment, training films, and public relations. Holder of a multi-engine pilot license, he later co-piloted jet planes for the Navy, which made him an Honorary Aviator authorized to wear wings of gold-at the time only the third so honored in naval aviation history. By 1976 he had attained the rank of captain, and was in uniform aboard the carrier USS Constellation for the Bicentennial celebration on July 4. In 1980 the Navy proposed a period of active duty at the Pentagon that would have resulted in a promotion to rear admiral, bringing him even with Air Force Reserve Brigadier General James Stewart. Fresh on the heels of a second directing Emmy, he felt his absence would impact achieving a long-held goal of directing motion pictures, and reluctantly declined. (The opportunity in films never materialized.) Holds Letters of Commendation from six secretaries of the Navy. Was honorary chairman of the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation and a charter member of VIVA, the effort to return POW-MIAs from Vietnam. Upon retirement in 1982, he was decorated with the Legion of Merit by Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr.. Other than Stewart, no performer in his industry has achieved a higher uniformed rank in the U.S. military. (Glenn Ford was also a Naval Reserve captain, and director and Captain John Ford was awarded honorary flag rank upon his 1951 retirement from the Naval Reserve).- Actor
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Although this pint-sized actor started out in films often in innocuous college-student roles in mid-30s rah-rahs, playing alongside the likes of a pretty Gloria Stuart or a young, pre-"Oz" Judy Garland, casting directors would soon enough discover his flair for portraying intense neurotics or spineless double-dealers. Thus was he graduated from the innocuous to the noxious. In Warners' They Won't Forget (1937), for example, he plays the role of a student whose social engagement with a young Lana Turner, debuting here in a featured role, seems to have been broken by her whereas, possibly unbeknownst to him, she has quite mysteriously been murdered. Cook becomes so enraged, venting such venom, that the movie audience can only look upon him as a prime suspect in Lana's demise. In Universal's Phantom Lady (1944), he portrays a nightclub-orchestra drummer who, under the intoxicating influence of some substance or other, encounters Ella Raines during an afternoon's band practice. Thoroughly taken with her slinky allure, he enacts a drum-solo piece that is of such crescendo, and played with such innuendo, as to suggest - glaringly - nothing except his own fantasized sexual journey from cymbal foreplay through bass-drum climax.- James McCallion was born on 27 September 1918 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Coogan's Bluff (1968), Vera Cruz (1954) and Illegal (1955). He was married to Nora Marlowe. He died on 11 July 1991 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Born in Los Angeles almost a year after the start of Great Depression. Bob (whose nickname 'Bobs' was given to him by his father, and for legal and professional reasons he adopted professionally) is from a family of 9 siblings; 6 boys and 3 girls. He made his first on-screen appearance as a (literal) babe in arms in Life Begins (1932). Watson received the sobriquet 'cry-baby' for his ability to cry on-cue. Watson is best known as "Pee Wee" from Boys Town (1938). Later in the mid-late 60's Watson left the film industry entirely and entered the Claremont School of Theology. Later he became a Methodist minister in Burbank and La Canada. Watson retired in 1997 and passed away in 1999, succumbing to prostate cancer- Producer
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Although younger brother Dwayne Hickman (born 1934) is probably the better-remembered sibling today with his cult following as TV's favorite lovestruck teenager Dobie Gillis and a few "Beach Party" films, it is Darryl Hickman who is certainly the more prolific brother in the movies. At one time, he was deemed one of Hollywood's most talented child stars of World War II and post-war film.
Hickman was born in Hollywood, California on July 28, 1931, to Milton Hickman, an insurance salesman, and his wife Katherine, a mother-turned-stage mother. Taking dance classes at age 3, Darryl's looks and talent were discovered by his dance school director who eventually had him placed with a child troupe at age 5 (Meglin School for Kiddies). Paramount Studios subsequently took notice and signed him to a contract, making his unbilled film debut as Ronald Colman's son in the classic adventure The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). The child then appeared briefly in a second Colman film, If I Were King (1938). Darryl would grow up within the studio system and on the studio sets. Fellow classmates would include such stars as Jackie Cooper.
Appearing in the Bing Crosby musical biopic The Star Maker (1939), Crosby took notice of young Darryl's promise and referred him to his talent agent brother Everett Crosby. Everett was impressed as well, and took Darryl under his wing. Placed in the Paramount films Untamed (1940) and The Way of All Flesh (1940), the boy was eventually featured in his most prominent role, that of young, impoverished Winfield Joad in the classic film The Grapes of Wrath (1940). MGM quickly showed interest and bought out the boy's Paramount contract.
A popular loan-out child player, Darryl appeared in a "poverty row" version of one of Jack London's more popular adventure stories Sign of the Wolf (1941); appeared in 12-year-old Shirley Temple's last film for Fox Young People (1940); showed up in Universal's Mob Town (1941) and another Fox film Young America (1942). While at MGM, Darryl found himself working with the studio's top echelon of stars including Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor and Mickey Rooney. Notable in-house roles included that of "Flip" in Men of Boys Town (1941), "Johnny Smith" in Joe Smith, American (1942), "(young) Blackie" in Northwest Rangers (1942); "Jeb" in the Tracy/Hepburn drama Keeper of the Flame (1942), "Etienne" in Assignment in Brittany (1943), and as young "Lionel" in the classic "Americana" film The Human Comedy (1943).
Darryl progressed from child to juvenile parts with equal skill. He was featured in the role of WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker as a lad in the biopic Captain Eddie (1945) starring Fred MacMurray and also featuring brother Dwayne; played composer Ira as a teenager in the Gershwin story Rhapsody in Blue (1945); reunited with Shirley Temple in the "Corliss Archer" comedy Kiss and Tell (1945); played the ill-fated brother-in-law of evil Gene Tierney in the drama Leave Her to Heaven (1945); portrayed the younger version of Van Heflin in the film noir The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946); tangled with priest Pat O'Brien as a young troublemaker in the "Boy's Town"-like crime drama Fighting Father Dunne (1948); was upgraded to Shirley Temple's boyfriend in the light comedy A Kiss for Corliss (1949); played a prep school problem along with co-star Dean Stockwell in the comedy The Happy Years (1950) and a disturbed ranch caretaker along with equally disturbed older sister Mercedes McCambridge in the heavy meller Lightning Strikes Twice (1951).
Darryl attended the Immaculate Heart Grammar School in Los Angeles as well as the studio schools at Paramount and then MGM. In September of 1951, 20-year-old Darryl, who had grown unhappy and disenchanted with Hollywood and the studio system in its inability to protect child actors, abandoned his career and entered a monastery, the Passionist Seminary, with the intent on becoming a priest. Within a year, however, he left when he realized he was not cut out for a life in the priesthood.
Trying to regain his acting momentum proved admirable and challenging. He began on 50's TV with guest shots on such shows as "Sky King," "The Lone Ranger," "Annie Oakley," "Biff Baker, U.S.A., "Perry Mason," "Public Defenders," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Wanted: Dead or Alive," "Gunsmoke," "The Millionaire" and several anthology programs. He also guested on brother Dwayne's popular "Dobie Gillis" TV show. On the film front, he found featured roles in Destination Gobi (1953), Island in the Sky (1953), Prisoner of War (1954), Tea and Sympathy (1956), The Persuader (1957) and The Tingler (1959).
By the early 1960's, as film and TV offers began to dry up, Darryl wisely moved behind the scenes. Starting out as a TV writer, he eventually became a program executive. In the 70's he briefly attempted TV producing. In later years he would also become a respected acting coach in the Los Angeles area. Never leaving acting altogether, he made 60's and 70's guest appearances on such shows as "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color," "Dr. Kildare," "Love, American Style," "All in the Family" and "Maude," before finding an "in" with an abundance of 80's animated voice work: Space Stars (1981), Pac-Man (1982), The Biskitts (1983), The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (1985) and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988). One of his last visible appearances was in a 1999 episode of "The Nanny."
Darryl married actress Pamela Lincoln, whom he first met on the film set of The Tingler (1959). They had one child, but divorced in 1982. He is married presently to production assistant Lynda Farmer Hickman.- Edward Emerson was born on 13 September 1903 in Arlington, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for I Cover Chinatown (1936), There Goes Kelly (1945) and Behind the Criminal (1937). He died on 11 April 1975 in The Bronx, New York, USA.
- John Kellogg was born on 3 June 1916 in Hollywood, California, USA. He was an actor, known for A Walk in the Sun (1945), Violets Are Blue... (1986) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). He died on 22 February 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Tommy Kelly was born on 6 April 1925 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1938) and Irene (1940). He was married to Susie Burch. He died on 26 January 2016 in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.
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Norman Abbott was born on 11 July 1922 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966), Get Smart (1965) and The Jack Benny Program (1950). He was married to Grace Hartman and Gayle Dominique. He died on 9 July 2016 in Valencia, Santa Clarita, California, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
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Composer, songwriter ("Mickey Mouse March"), actor, singer, guitarist and conductor, Jimmie Dodd was educated at the University of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Conservatory and Vanderbilt University. He began his career in 1933 as a guitarist and singer on radio, coming to Hollywood in 1937 to play in the Louis Prima orchestra and later become an actor. In World War II he toured the Aleutians and the China-Burma-India area for the USO with wife Ruth Carrell Dodd. He was active in television beginning in 1952 and won the MC role on the new The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) series in 1955. He left the series in 1959, beginning a tour of Australia that lasted in 1960. He also led his own dance group. Joining ASCAP in 1946, his chief musical collaborators included his wife Ruth and George Wyle and John Jacob Loeb. His other popular-song compositions include "He Was There", "Encyclopedia", "I Love Girls", "Lonely Guitar", "Mamie", "Nashville Blues", "I'm No Fool", "Rosemary", "Be a Good Guest", "Amarillo", "Hi to You", "Proverbs", "Washington" (official song of the District of Columbia), "Meet Me in Monterey" (for the Monterey Centennial), and "A Bird Is Singin' the Blues".- David Durand was born on 27 July 1920 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Bad Sister (1931), Little Men (1934) and Scouts to the Rescue (1939). He died on 25 July 1998 in Bridgeview, Illinois, USA.
- Harris Franklin Berger grew up in the Bronx, New York in the 1920s, along with his brother Arthur who was 8 years his senior. His father Jack was an optometrist who had grown up on the lower East Side of Manhattan. His mother Millie, while a citizen of the United States, had been born in Czechoslovakia and was Bohemian.
As a child, Harris had a wonderful singing voice and broke into show business on Horn and Hardart Children's Hour, a radio program for youngsters.
Besides appearing in movies and serials, Harris also worked in vaudeville alongside Hal E. Chester, another Little Tough Guy, sometimes using the stage name Steve Harris. As vaudeville died out and movie opportunities became fewer, Harris began working in his father's office as an optician, grinding lenses. His brother Arthur, who also worked in the same office, would go on to become an optometrist. Harris eventually went into menswear, working at Roger Kent's Men's Clothing in Manhattan.
While still living in the Bronx, Harris met Enid Greenfield at a Purim dance and the two married in 1952. They had two sons, Marc in 1956 and Bruce in 1960. In 1968, the family moved to Southern California, and by 1969 had settled into a house in Simi Valley, where Harris lived until his death from bladder cancer in 1983.
While it is true that Harris Berger quit show biz, it is equally true that show biz never really quit him, and he often thrilled his sons with tales of his experiences in Hollywood and vaudeville, was wont to break into song, crack jokes, and always left a room brighter for his having been there. Unlike his movie persona, Harris was a kind, caring individual who never got in trouble with the law, and for whom family was always very important. - Donald Haines was born on 9 May 1919 in Seward County, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor, known for Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941), That Gang of Mine (1940) and Kidnapped (1938). He died on 20 February 1943 in North Africa.
- Francis Vaselle Aiello was born June 6, 1915, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. He worked many odd jobs after graduating High School, including working with his father, Carmine, who owned a tailoring shop. He earned the nickname "The earl of Warwick" because of his persistence trying to obtain a job at the most luxurious hotel in town, The Warwick Hotel (he sat in the lobby for weeks every day). However, he was a "newspaper seller" when he first saw 'James Cagney' on film and became an immediate fan. He imitated Cagney for a long time to his friends and family, much to their approval, before deciding to hitchhike to Hollywood to get an interview with Cagney, but this attempt failed, so he returned home to New York. Later he tried it again, and this time he landed a job on the vaudeville circuit doing impressions of Cagney. A Warner Bros. talent scout saw his act and hired him for the role of the young version of Cagney's "Rocky Sullivan" in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). After that he made 17 films until he disappeared from the celebrity circuit in 1941. His whereabouts from 1941 to about 1961 are unknown, but sometime in the early 1960s, he decided to ride the rails as what he, himself, called a "Hobo" until he became too ill and was taken from a train when it pulled into Junction City, Kansas. He was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and sent to a long term care facility in Chapman, Kansas where he passed away only weeks later on April 7th, 1983.
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Sam Edwards grew up in a show business family, having made his debut on stage while he was just a baby (his mother, the actress Edna Park, was holding him). With his family, he acted on radio in "The Adventures of Sunny and Buddy," and on his family's show, "The Edwards Family."- Edwin Brian was born on 30 December 1928 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Scouts to the Rescue (1939), East Side Kids (1940) and Her First Romance (1940). He died on 27 June 1986 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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- Actor
- Director
Former chorus boy who would become a star in "B" westerns, and later a successful comedy writer (under the name David Barclay) and TV director. O'Brien is notable as one of the relatively few success stories to emerge out of the drek of poverty row, where he blissfully worked for nearly a decade before landing work in the hypo-nasal Pete Smith's series of novelty shorts at MGM. In the mid-50's he gravitated toward comedy writing working on the Red Skelton Show, striking up a longtime friendship with series co-writer Sherwood Schwartz.