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Leo Gorcey

Leo Gorcey
Leo Gorcey 1945.JPG
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– 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.

Gorcey was born in New York City, on June 3, 1917. The son of 16-year-old Josephine (née Condon), an Irish Catholic immigrant, and 31-year-old Bernard Gorcey, a Russian Jewish immigrant, both vaudevillian actors as well as small people. Bernard Gorcey was 4' 10", and his wife was 4' 11", as an adult, Leo would reach 5' 6".

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.

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]"


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