Leo Bernard Gorcey Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1916 or 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 The Bowery Boys. Always the most pugnacious member of the gangs he participated in, young Leo was the filmic prototype of the young punk. He was the shortest and the oldest of the original gang.
Dead End, Ghosts on the Loose, Smart Alecks, Clancy Street Boys, Spooks Run Wild, Million Dollar Kid, Bowery Blitzkrieg, Boys of the City, 'Neath Brooklyn Bridge, Flying Wild, Pride of the Bowery, Mr. Wise Guy, They Made Me a Criminal, The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters, Let's Get Tough!, That Gang o...
[observation, as a five-times-married man] Kids have a habit of marrying their first date and spending an awful lot of time wondering what the other dates would have been like. I never made that mistake. I married them all.
2
[About Billy "Whitey" Benedict from the Bowery Boys movies] I always liked him. We used to fish together and we used to go surf fishing, and one day I stubbed my toe on a rock. I was running out there in a real hurry to catch a sea bass and I stubbed my toe, and it really fascinated me at how interested he was. He wanted to take care of my toe, you know, fix it. Of course he couldn't because it was stubbed, but he really took a sincere interest in it and he taped it up or something. I don't know what he did. It was rather surprising because most times, guy stubs his toe, the other guy says 'that's too bad, you stubbed your toe, that's rough,' you know? I mean that's their attitude...very very nice person.
3
[about his parents] Russian Jew and Irish Catholic, that's about as mixed as you can get without trying too hard.
4
[about his father acting in the Bowery Boys movies] I think he was the best actor of the whole group. Where Papa was concerned, he was great.
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Fact
1
He and his agent, Jan Grippo, owned "The Bowery Boys" franchise being produced at Monogram. Dispite his b-movie status, this supposedly made him one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. Grippo was credited as producer until he left the series in 1951 following the death of his wife.
2
Claimed he and the Dead End Kids used to be friends with Humphrey Bogart, until one day, while Bogart was taking a nap after a hard day of acting and the boys threw a pack of lit firecrackers in through his window.
3
His first wife left him for the same man he went into business on a radio program - Groucho Marx. From there, Groucho became Leo's first "husband-in-law" and one of his best friends.
4
He left the Bowery Boys after his father, Bernard, also a frequent co-star in the series, was killed in an auto accident in 1955.
5
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 188-189. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
6
After being fired from his plumbing job, he accompanied his brother David on an acting job. When one of the other actors fainted, David got Leo to take the role.
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He was president of his high school drama club.
8
When Gorcey was making one of his few non-Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys films, 1941's Out of the Fog (1941), he repeatedly blew a simple line of dialog. Fed up, director Anatole Litvak stormed over to him and shouted, "Gorcey, as an actor, you stink!" Stung by this rebuke, Gorcey let fly with a burst of retaliatory fireworks of his own - "Don't you ever, ever scream at me like that again!," Gorcey shouted back, and stormed off the set. A few hours later, he was back, did the scene again ... and blew the line again. This time, Litvak walked over to him quietly, calmly and whispered in his ear, "Gorcey, as an actor, you still stink. And notice that, this time, I'm not shouting.".
9
Interred at Molinos Cemetery, Los Molinos, California, USA.
$11 Million
