Reginald Thomas Kirkwood (30 May 1920 – 7 September 2006), better known as Joe Kirkwood Jr., was a professional golfer on the PGA Tour and a film actor. He started going by the name Joe Jr. in the late 1930s.

Biography

Kirkwood was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father,

Joe Kirkwood Sr. Joseph Henry Kirkwood Sr. (3 April 1897 – 29 October 1970) was a professional golfer who is acknowledged as having put Australian golf on the world map. Born in Sydney, Australia, Kirkwood left home at age ten to work on a sheep Station (Austr ...

, was a golf pro acknowledged as having put Australian golf on the world map. In 1948, father and son both made the cut at the U.S. Open, the first father and son duo to do so (a record they held until 2004). When the younger Kirkwood won the 1949

Philadelphia Inquirer Open The Philadelphia Inquirer Open was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour that was played at various clubs in the greater Philadelphia area in the 1940s. The first event played as the Philadelphia Inquirer Open Invitational; it was last played in 1949. F ...

, they became the third father and son winners in the history of the PGA Tour. Kirkwood Jr. also won the

Ozark Open The Ozark Open was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1947 to 1951. It was played at Hickory Hills Country Club in Springfield, Missouri. It was a 54-hole event with prize money of $5,000. Harry Todd Harry Todd (December 13, 1863 – F ...

in 1950 and defeated Sam Snead to win the 1951 Blue Ribbon Open in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1945, Kirkwood was invited by

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 ...

to test for the role of boxer

Joe Palooka ''Joe Palooka'' was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. The strip debuted on April 19, 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers. It was cancelled in 1984. The strip was adapt ...

, a popular comic book character. He got the part and starred in ''

Joe Palooka, Champ ''Joe Palooka, Champ'' is a 1946 American film featuring the comic-strip boxer Joe Palooka. This film from Monogram Pictures is the beginning of a series with eleven sequels: * ''Gentleman Joe Palooka'' (1946) * ''Joe Palooka in the Knockout ...

'' (1946) as well as ten additional Joe Palooka films through 1951. Kirkwood returned to the role in the 1954 television series ''The Joe Palooka Story''. In the late 1950s, Kirkwood, who has a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...

at 1620 Vine Street, was one of the reporters on the

NBC Radio The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...

program '' Monitor''. He also hosted a show, "Let's Play Golf", on Los Angeles station KHJ-TV.

Filmography

Personal life

Kirkwood married Joyce Woltz in 1962. His first marriage, to Cathy Downs, lasted from 1952 until their divorce in 1955. Downs and Kirkwood starred together in ''The Joe Palooka Story'' TV series from 1954 to 1955. Kirkwood died September 7, 2006 in Hesperia, California.

PGA Tour wins

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirkwood, Joe Jr. Australian male golfers American male golfers PGA Tour golfers American male film actors American male television actors 20th-century American male actors American radio personalities Golfers from Melbourne Australian emigrants to the United States 1920 births 2006 deaths