Reginald Thomas Kirkwood (30 May 1920 – 7 September 2006), better known as Joe Kirkwood Jr., was a professional golfer on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

and a film actor. He started going by the name Joe Jr. in the late 1930s.

Biography

Kirkwood was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. His father, Joe Kirkwood Sr., 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, they became the third father and son winners in the history of the PGA Tour. Kirkwood Jr. also won the Ozark Open in 1950 and defeated

Sam Snead Samuel Jackson Snead (pronounced English_phonology">sni:d.html" ;"title="English_phonology.html" ;"title="nowiki/>English phonology">sni:d">English_phonology.html" ;"title="nowiki/>English phonology">sni:d May 27, 1912 – May 23, 2002) was an ...

to win the 1951

Blue Ribbon Open The Blue Ribbon Open was a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played only in 1951. It was held in Wisconsin at the North Hills Country Club in Menomenee Falls, northwest of Milwaukee. Part-time Hollywood actor Joe Kirkwood Jr. won ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. In 1945, Kirkwood was invited by Monogram Pictures to test for the role of boxer Joe Palooka, a popular comic book character. He got the part and starred in '' Joe Palooka, Champ'' (1946) as well as ten additional Joe Palooka films through 1951. Kirkwood returned to the role in the 1954

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

''The Joe Palooka Story''. In the late 1950s, Kirkwood, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street, was one of the reporters on the NBC Radio program ''

Monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...

''. He also hosted a show, "Let's Play Golf", on Los Angeles station

KHJ-TV KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS West Coast flagship KCBS-TV (channel 2). Both stations share studios at the C ...

Filmography

Personal life

Kirkwood married Joyce Woltz in 1962. His first marriage, to

Cathy Downs Catherine N. Downs (March 3, 1926 – December 8, 1976) was an American film actress. Biography Downs was born in Port Jefferson, New York. She was the daughter of James Nelson Downs and Edna Elizabeth Newman. A model for the Walter Thornton ...

, 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 Hesperia is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is located north of downtown San Bernardino in Victor Valley and surrounded by the Mojave Desert. Because of its relatively high elevation and the unique and moderate w ...

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