- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLeo Bernard Gorcey
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- Leo Gorcey's parents were actor Bernard Gorcey (born 1888) who stood 4' 10", and Josephine Condon (born 1901), who stood 4' 11" and weighed 95 pounds; they worked in vaudeville in New York. In 1915, 14-year-old Josephine gave birth to Fred. In 1917, Leo was born, a large baby at 12 lb. 3 oz.; as an adult he would be 5' 6". In 1921 his brother David Gorcey was born. In 1935, Leo and David appeared in the stage play "Dead End." In 1937, this was made into a movie, and Leo became one of the busiest actors for the next 20 years -- from 1937-1939 he starred in seven Dead End Kids movies, from 1940-1945 in 21 East Side Kids films, from 1946-1956 in 41 Bowery Boys movies.
In 1939, Leo married 17-year-old dancer Kay Marvis, who appeared in four of his movies. They divorced in 1944 after five years of marriage; she went on to marry Groucho Marx. In 1945, Leo married Evalene Bankston; they divorced in 1948. Leo was to have paid her $50,000 in a divorce settlement; however, when two detectives she hired broke into his home, he retaliated by firing his gun at them. They sued, and Leo countersued for illegal entry and won $35,000 back. In 1949, Leo married Amelita Ward, whom he met while filming Smugglers' Cove (1948). Their marriage produced Leo Gorcey Jr. in 1949, and a baby girl they named Jan (after Leo's producer and manager, Jan Grippo) in 1951. They divorced in 1956. That year Leo married his young nanny, Brandy, who was taking care of his two kids. They had a baby girl, Brandy Jo, in 1958. The couple divorced in 1962. Leo went to the altar one last time in February, 1968, marrying Mary Gannon. He stayed married to her until his death on June 2, 1969.- IMDb Mini Biography By: kdhaisch@aol.com
- SpousesMary Gannon(July 12, 1968 - June 2, 1969) (his death)Brandy Davis(1956 - 1962) (divorced, 1 child)Amelita Ward(February 12, 1949 - February 8, 1956) (divorced, 2 children)Evalene Bankston(October 24, 1945 - February 29, 1948) (divorced)Kay Marvis(May 16, 1939 - June 21, 1945) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- Parents
- RelativesDavid Gorcey(Sibling)
- His pinned up fedora
- 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.".
- His first wife left him for the same man he went into business with on a radio program - Groucho Marx. From there, Groucho became Leo's first "husband-in-law" and one of his best friends.
- Removed from the final cover of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album because he requested a fee.
- 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.
- 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.
- [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.
- [about his parents] Russian Jew and Irish Catholic, that's about as mixed as you can get without trying too hard.
- [About William 'Billy' Benedict (Whitey) 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.
- [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.
- Crashing Las Vegas (1956) - $22,500
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