Leo Gorcey

Leo Gorcey

Gorcey in 1945
Born Leo Bernard Gorcey
(1917-06-03)June 3, 1917
New York City, United States
Died June 2, 1969(1969-06-02) (aged 51)
Oakland, California, United States
Cause of death Liver failure
Occupation Actor
Years active 1935–1966
Spouse(s) Kay Marvis (1939-1944; divorced; 1 child)
Evalene Bankston (1945-1948; divorced)
Amelita Ward (1949-1956; divorced; 2 children)
Brandy Gorcey (1956-1962; divorced; 1 child)
Mary Gannon (1968-1969; his death)
Children 3
Parent(s) Bernard Gorcey
Josephine Condon
Relatives David Gorcey (brother)

Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1917[1]– June 2, 1969) was an American stage and movie actor who became famous for portraying on film the leader of the group of young hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, The East Side Kids, and as an adult, The Bowery Boys. Always the most pugnacious member of the gangs in which he participated, young Leo was the filmic prototype of the young punk. He was the shortest member of the original gang.

Early years

Gorcey was born in New York City, the son of Josephine (née Condon) and Bernard Gorcey, vaudeville actors. His mother was 16 years old at the time of his birth, and was already a mother at 14; his father was 31 years old. Both were small people. Bernard Gorcey was 4' 10", and his wife was 4' 11". Their son Leo would reach 5' 6" as an adult. In 1921, another son was born to the family, David Gorcey. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant, and his mother was an Irish Catholic immigrant.[2]

Film career

In the 1930s, Leo's father became estranged from the family while working in theater and film. When he returned in 1935, he and David persuaded Leo to try out for a small part in the play Dead End. Having just lost his job as a plumber's apprentice and seeing his father's relative success, Leo decided to give acting a try. Leo and David were cast as two members of the East 53rd Place Gang (originally dubbed the "2nd Avenue Boys" in the play Dead End published by playwright Sydney Kingsley) with limited stage time. Charles Duncan, who was originally cast as Spit, left the play, and Leo, his understudy, was promoted. Gorcey created a quarrelsome guttersnipe whose greatest joy was in making trouble.

Gorcey in the film Gallant Sons (1940)

In 1937, Samuel Goldwyn made the popular play into a movie of the same name and transported the six rowdy boys to Hollywood. Gorcey became one of the busiest actors in Hollywood for the next 20 years.

In the Bowery Boys movies, Leo's father, Bernard Gorcey, played Louie Dumbrowski, the diminutive sweetshop owner from whom the boys conned banana splits and financial loans. Leo's character "Slip" was famed for his malapropisms always delivered in a Brooklyn accent, such as "a clever seduction" for "a clever deduction", "I depreciate it!" ("I appreciate it!"), "I regurgitate" ("I reiterate"), and "optical delusion" ("optical illusion"). In the movie Jungle Gents, set in Africa (but filmed on stage 2), Huntz Hall lost the map and substituted a newspaper ad for lingerie. When Slip saw it, he said, "This ain't a map—it's an ad for ladies' griddles! [girdles]"

In 1939, Gorcey married 17-year-old dancer Kay Marvis, who appeared in four of his Monogram movies. They divorced in 1944, after which Kay went on to become the second wife of Groucho Marx. In 1949, Gorcey married Amelita Ward, with whom he had worked in Clancy Street Boys and Smugglers' Cove. She gave birth to Leo Gorcey, Jr., during their marriage.

Also in 1944, Gorcey had a recurring role in the Pabst Blue Ribbon Town radio show, starring Groucho Marx. In 1948, Gorcey played a small role in the sophisticated movie comedy So This Is New York starring acerbic radio and television comedian Henry Morgan and featuring Arnold Stang.

In 1955, after his father was killed in an automobile accident, Leo turned to the bottle for solace and lost a great deal of weight. When he trashed a movie set in an intoxicated rage, the studio refused to give him the pay raise he demanded, so he quit the Bowery Boys and was replaced in the last seven movies by Stanley Clements. Leo's brother David remained with the series until it ended in early 1958.

During the 1960s, Leo did very little acting. He did appear in the epic 1963 comedy, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, sharing the screen with Sid Caesar and Edie Adams in a bit part as their first cab driver, their second being Peter Falk. Gorcey then made two final appearances on film with Huntz Hall in a pair of low budget productions: Second Fiddle To A Steel Guitar (1966) and The Phynx (1970).

Life after acting

In 1967, Gorcey published his autobiography, entitled An Original Dead End Kid Presents: Dead End Yells, Wedding Bells, Cockle Shells, and Dizzy Spells. The original publication was limited to 1,000 hardcover copies. A 2004 reprint, with a foreword by Leo Gorcey, Jr., was also limited to 1,000 numbered copies. In addition, in 2003, Gorcey, Jr., published his own book about his father, entitled Me and the Dead End Kid.

Gorcey was removed from the original cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album after he demanded a payment of $5,000.

Gorcey's first cousin, twice removed, is sports writer Ryan Gorcey. Another of Gorcey's first cousins, twice removed, is actress Liz Gorcey, who is most known for her role in Footloose.

Death

Years of alcoholism eventually caught up with Gorcey. He died of liver failure on June 2, 1969, one day before his 52nd birthday.[3] He is buried at Molinos Cemetery in Los Molinos, California.

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ Social Security Death Index
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Leo Gorcey dies; A dead end kid

External links

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