Buddy Pepper

Buddy Pepper (April 21, 1922 – February 7, 1993) was an American composer, arranger and actor working mostly in the motion picture industry. He is remembered as being one of three writers of the song "Vaya Con Dios", which has been recorded over 500 times.

Buddy Pepper was born Jack Retherford Starkey in La Grange, Kentucky on April 12, 1922. He made his professional debut as a singing pianist and actor when he was 5, and at age 11 was a featured piano soloist with the Steedman Symphony Orchestra in Louisville. He won a Major Bowes Amateur Hour contest at age 13, then entered vaudeville. For two years he was featured in the Broadway and Hollywood musical revue Meet the People, appearing as the younger brother of actor Jack Pepper and adopting the name Little Buddy Pepper.

As a teenager, Pepper appeared in eleven feature films, including Seventeen, with Jackie Cooper (1940); The Reluctant Dragon, with Robert Benchley (1941), and Men of Boys Town, with Spencer Tracy (1941).

After service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Pepper became a composer and lyricist for Universal Studios. He scored the Donald O'Connor picture Mister Big, and wrote songs for several other O'Connor films. Usually collaborating with Inez James, and sometimes others, he contributed songs to thirteen films in all, including The Hucksters (1947), Because of You (1952), Pillow Talk (1959), and Portrait in Black (1960).

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