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Post by Addie on Aug 21, 2009 21:52:24 GMT 2
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Post by intolerant on Jul 23, 2010 18:41:28 GMT 2
I'm surprised that no one yet has commented on Billy Halop the leader of the Dead End Kids & Little Tough Guys. So I'll be the first since his character's name was "Tommy" in Dead End & They Made Me A Criminal. That was my real name & I was called that as a kid.
Out of the 6 original Dead End Kids I think Billy Halop showed the most potential of succeeding as a solo actor in his own right. For example in 1939 he appeared solo with Humphrey Bogart in the gangster/prison flick titled "You Can't Get Away With Murder". Bogart got top billing but Halop had more screen time & was the real star & main focus.
It was exciting watching Halop on his own & it was suspenseful to see what his character was going to do. Was he going to keep silent or was he going to crack & spill & "talk" to save his sister's boyfriend from the hot seat? For most of the film Halop was torn between the good & evil forces. Maybe if he would've appeared in a few more films like this on his own he might've skyrocketed & found new success as a solo actor. Who knows?
I don't know what went wrong but instead after the Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys series ended in the mid to late 1940's his career nosedived into a tailspin & he descended to a bit player. By the 1970's the most notable thing he did was in the popular sit-com TV show "All In The Family" as one of Archie Bunker's friends Munson the cabdriver.
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Post by sunflower on Jul 28, 2010 20:08:10 GMT 2
I thought Billy Halop did really well in You Can't Get Away With Murder. It really was a shame that his career didn't take off as it should have. I guess he was only seen as a Dead End Kid and nothing else. It seems that in Hollywood, the one thing that starts your career sometimes can also end it. He was put into that Dead End Kid mould and kind of stayed there.
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Post by Addie on Jul 29, 2010 4:15:12 GMT 2
Hello intolerant, welcome to the board!!!! ;D
I agree with the both of you. It does seem that he was thrown into that mold and no matter how he tried, he couldn't seem to break out of it. It is a shame because he could have become a successful adult actor had he stayed (or more accurately made it) in the acting world.
But I'm glad that we have the movies that he is in and so many of them at that!
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