Frankie Burke (June 6, 1915 – April 7, 1983) was a Hollywood actor, best known for his appearance as a member of

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 ...

Early life

Burke was born Frankie Vaselle and grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York. His name was changed when he began working in films. Burke went to P.S. 25 on Lafayette and Throop streets before going on to Alexander Hamilton (vocation) High School, now known as ''Paul Robeson HS'', at 150 Albany Avenue. He grew up watching James Cagney on film in local theaters and, having been told many times how much he resembled him, figured if Cagney could become famous, so could he. Burke sold newspapers on the street corners before deciding to hitchhike to Hollywood in 1937 to meet Cagney, but when the first attempt failed, he went back to Brooklyn. In 1937, Burke worked as a bellhop at a hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Life in Hollywood

He was discovered by a

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

talent scout, out searching for young men who resembled Cagney for a role in 1938's ''

Angels with Dirty Faces ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' is a 1938 American crime drama film directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Brothers. It stars James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, The Dead End Kids, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and George Bancroft. The screenplay was wri ...

''. Apparently, the resemblance was so astounding that Burke was hired on the spot. He went on to do eighteen more films, several of which were uncredited, before his last role in 1941's ''

Shadow of the Thin Man ''Shadow of the Thin Man'' is the fourth of six ''The Thin Man'' murder mystery comedy films. It was released by MGM in 1941 and was directed by W. S. Van Dyke. It stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. Also, in this fil ...

''.

After Hollywood

After a divorce in the 1940s, Burke returned to Nevada to work and then on to the east coast to stay with family. In the early 1960s, he opted to become a hobo and travel across the United States in freight trains.

Death

Burke died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

in 1983. He was survived by one son.

Filmography

References

External links

* * American male film actors 1915 births 1983 deaths Deaths from lung cancer Male actors from New York City 20th-century American male actors {{US-film-actor-1930s-stub