David Gorcey (February 6, 1921 – October 23, 1984) was an American
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
and the younger brother of actor
Leo Gorcey
Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1917– June 2, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, famous for portraying the leader of a group of hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids and, as adults, The Bowery Boys. Gorcey was ...
. Gorcey is best known for portraying "Chuck Anderson" in
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
' film series
The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys are fictional New York City characters, portrayed by a company of New York actors, who were the subject of 48 feature films released by Monogram Pictures and its successor Allied Artists Pictures Corporation from 1946 through 1 ...
, and "Pee Wee" in its antecedent
The East Side Kids
The East Side Kids were characters in a series of 22 films released by Monogram Pictures from 1940 through 1945. Many of them were originally part of The Dead End Kids and The Little Tough Guys, and several of them later became members of The ...
.
Life and career
David Gorcey was born in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York, the son of Josephine (née Condon) and
Bernard Gorcey
Bernard Gorcey (9 January 1886 – 11 September 1955) was a Russian-born American actor. He began in Vaudeville, performed on Broadway, and appeared in multiple shorts and films. He portrayed ice cream shop proprietor Louie Dumbrowski i ...
. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant and his mother was an
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...
immigrant. and entered the entertainment business at a young age. He appeared in
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
during his childhood, and eventually made it to the stage and screen.
When Gorcey was 10 years old, he was signed by the
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one th ...
studio in New York to co-star in its
Penrod and Sam series of short subjects, based on the
Booth Tarkington
Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels '' The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and '' Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitz ...
stories. "Dave Gorcey" played Sam Williams opposite Billy Hayes as Penrod Schofield.
He is not usually thought of as one of the "original"
Dead End Kids
The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York City who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play '' Dead End'' in 1935. In 1937, producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film. They prov ...
, but he did have a small role in the 1935 Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's ''Dead End''. During his time as a cast member of ''Dead End'', David helped secure a role for his older brother Leo, who ultimately became a star while David remained a supporting character.
''Dead End'' became a hit motion picture, and the street gang of the play became known as the Dead End Kids. When other studios wanted to make their own tough-kid pictures, Leo Gorcey was unavailable and expensive, so younger brother David Gorcey became a more economical second choice. David became a prolific tough-kid juvenile in such films as ''Juvenile Court'' (1938), ''Sergeant Madden'' (1939), and ''Carolina Moon'' (1940). When
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
launched its Dead End Kids knockoff
The Little Tough Guys, David Gorcey was hired. He later joined brother Leo in
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
'
East Side Kids
The East Side Kids were characters in a series of 22 films released by Monogram Pictures from 1940 through 1945. Many of them were originally part of The Dead End Kids and The Little Tough Guys, and several of them later became members of The ...
series.
His screen career was interrupted by military service. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army. Upon his return to civilian life, he was recruited by his brother Leo for Monogram's new series, now called The Bowery Boys. Beginning in 1952 David Gorcey adopted the screen name "David Condon", using his mother's maiden name to avoid accusations of nepotism. He reverted to his real name in 1957. He occasionally appeared apart from the gang, in such films as ''
The Babe Ruth Story
''The Babe Ruth Story'' is a 1948 biographical film of Babe Ruth, the famed New York Yankees slugger. It stars William Bendix (New York Yankee batboy in the 1920s) as the ballplayer and Claire Trevor as his wife Claire Merritt Hodgson. Critic ...
'' (1948), and ''
Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion
''Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion'' is a black and white 1950 American comedy film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.
It is set in the French Sahara with the heroes having joined the Frenc ...
'' (1950).
Personal life
He was married to Dorothea Jocker (Aaron), with whom he had a son, David Jr., and a daughter, Audrey.
David Gorcey was always pleasant and professional to his fellow cast and crew members, unlike his brother Leo who was often argumentative and abusive. In 1956, after the death of their father Bernard Gorcey, David visited Leo's home, only to find Leo in a drunken rampage. Leo threatened David with a gun, causing the appalled David to leave both the premises and Leo behind. He reluctantly became estranged from Leo.
Later in life, he became a minister ("Father David") and founded a halfway house to help recovering alcoholics and people with substance abuse problems. He died in
Van Nuys, California
Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
History
In 1909, ...
on October 23, 1984, of complications of diabetes.
''Washington Post''
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Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
*
1921 births
1984 deaths
Male actors from New York (state)
American male film actors
American people of Irish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Jewish American male actors
People from Washington Heights, Manhattan
Vaudeville performers
20th-century American male actors
Deaths from diabetes
Burials at Los Angeles National Cemetery
20th-century American Jews
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