Billy Halop
| Billy Halop | |
|---|---|
Billy Halop
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| Born |
William Halop February 11, 1920 Jamaica, New York, United States |
| Died | November 9, 1976 (aged 56) Brentwood, California, United States |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Resting place | Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Occupation | Actor, registered nurse |
| Years active | 1931-1976 |
| Spouse(s) | Suzanne Roe (m.1960-1967; divorced) Barbara Hoon (m.1948-1958; divorced) Helen Tupper (m.1946-1947; divorced) |
William "Billy" Halop (February 11, 1920 – November 9, 1976) was an American actor.
Halop came from a theatrical family; his mother was a dancer, and his sister, Florence Halop, was an actress who worked on radio and in television.
In 1933, he was given the lead, Bobby Benson, in the popular new radio show The H-Bar-O Rangers, an early credit of Don Knotts as well. From 1934 to 1937, he starred in one of his first radio series, playing Dick Kent, the son of Fred and Lucy Kent, in "Home Sweet Home".
After several years as a radio juvenile, he was cast as Tommy Gordon in the 1935 Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End and traveled to Hollywood with the rest of the Dead End Kids when Samuel Goldwyn produced a film version of the play in 1937. Usually called Tommy in the films, he had the recurring role of a gang leader in a series of films that featured the Dead End Kids, later billed Little Tough Guys. In his later years, he claimed that he was paid more than the other Dead End actors, which had contributed to bad feelings in the group, and that he was tired of the name "Dead End Kids". He played with James Cagney in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and he also played the bully Flashman, speaking with an English accent, in the 1940 film Tom Brown's School Days opposite Cedric Hardwicke and Freddie Bartholomew.
After serving in World War II, he found that he had grown too old to be effective in the roles that had brought him fame. At one point, he was reduced to starring in a cheap East Side Kids imitation at PRC studios, Gas House Kids (1946). Diminishing film work, marital difficulties, and a drinking problem eventually ate away at his show business career.
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