Leo Gorcey
Birthday: 1917-06-03
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
Biography: 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 from liver failure on June 2, 1969, in Oakland, California.
Movies
Kid Dynamite
The East Side boxing champion Muggs answers a challenge to a fight against the West Side champ but j...
View Movie
Let's Get Tough
Rejected by the Army, Marines, and Navy for being too young, the punks help the war effort by throwi...
View Movie
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $...
View Movie
Mr. Wise Guy
The gang is sent to the Wilton Reform School after they are unjustly convicted of stealing a truck. ...
View Movie
Million Dollar Kid
In ridding the area of muggers, the East Side Boys acquire a wealthy benefactor whose privileged son...
View Movie
Pride of the Bowery
Muggs is tricked into entering a Civilian Conservation Corps camp by Danny in order to get in shape....
View Movie
Mannequin
Jessie, a young working class woman, seeks to improve her life by marrying her boyfriend, only to fi...
View Movie
They Made Me a Criminal
A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk....
View Movie
Out of the Fog
A Brooklyn pier racketeer bullies boat-owners into paying protection money but two fed-up fishermen ...
View Movie
Dead End
Mobster "Baby Face" Martin returns home to visit the New York neighborhood where he grew up, droppin...
View Movie
Angels with Dirty Faces
Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matu...
View Movie
Spooks Run Wild
A group of delinquents on their way to summer camp get stuck in a haunted house....
View Movie
The Phynx
A rock band is invented by the government as a cover to find hostages in a remote castle in Albania ...
View Movie
Bowery Blitzkrieg
The East Side Kids discover that one of their own, Danny, is torn between staying in school and beco...
View Movie
Jinx Money
A man wins $50,000 in a card game with gamblers, but is soon found dead and the money missing. Slip ...
View Movie
Ghosts on the Loose
The East Side Kids try to fix up a house for newlyweds, but find the place next door "haunted" by my...
View Movie
Spook Busters
The Bowery Boys--Slip, Sach, Bobby, Whitey & Chuck--start their own exterminating service, and g...
View Movie
Crime School
In the slums, teenager Frankie Warren hangs out with a rowdy gang who one day knock him out in a fig...
View Movie
Born to Sing
A group of children put on a show in order to prove that a down and out musician was the real compos...
View Movie
So This Is New York
A small town man inherits a significant fortune and takes his family to New York City whereupon they...
View Movie
Boys of the City
Street kids get sent to the country, where they get mixed up in murder and a haunted house....
View Movie
Flying Wild
A group of young men who work at an aviation factory begin to suspect that a doctor who runs an air ...
View Movie
Maisie Gets Her Man
Struggling performers, Sothern and Skelton's lives are thrown off gear when they are caught with a b...
View Movie
Angels' Alley
Slip invites his cousin Jimmy to stay with his family after he is released from prison. However, Jim...
View Movie
Destroyer
Flagwaving story of a new American destroyer, the JOHN PAUL JONES, from the day her keel is laid, to...
View Movie
Bowery Bombshell
Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), Bobby (Bobby Jordan), Whitey (William Benedict) and Chuck (Dav...
View Movie
Bowery Buckaroos
The Bowery Boys head west to clear Louie of an old murder charge that he had killed his gold-mine pa...
View Movie
The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters
Slip, Sach and the rest of the Bowery Boys enter a haunted house, where they engage in slapstick wit...
View Movie
Loose in London
The Bowery Boys take on British crooks when one of them thinks he's inherited a title....
View Movie
Angels Wash Their Faces
A young man just released from a reformatory moves to a new neighborhood with his sister, intending ...
View Movie
Smart Alecks
Danny helps to capture a wanted criminal and receives a $200 reward. However, he has a falling out w...
View Movie
Ghost Chasers
A ghost helps the Bowery Boys capture a gang of crooks led by a mad doctor....
View Movie
Dig That Uranium
The boys buy a uranium mine out west, but when they get there they find that it's pretty much worthl...
View Movie
Hold That Line
The Bowery Boys are enrolled in a fancy college by a pair of rich snobs who think they can turn the ...
View Movie
Jalopy
Slip has entered the Boys' rattletrap car in a souped-up jalopy race, but has no chance of winning u...
View Movie
Paris Playboys
Sach is the exact double of a famous French scientist who has invented a powerful rocket fuel. Enemy...
View Movie
Let's Go Navy!
The Bowery Boys join the Navy to catch some crooks who are posing as sailors....
View Movie
Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook
A history of the famous vampire of books and movies, using film clips, previews and other methods....
View Movie
Swingtime in the Movies
In this musical short, a waitress at the Warner Bros. commissary gets her big break....
View Movie
Feudin' Fools
Sach learns that he has inherited a farm in rural hillbilly country, and when he and the Boys arrive...
View Movie
No Holds Barred
One of the Bowery Boys gains superhuman strength, and he cashes in by becoming a pro wrestler....
View Movie
Jungle Gents
When a cold medicine causes Sach to be able to smell diamonds, he and the rest of the Bowery Boys ar...
View Movie
Clipped Wings
Slip and correspondence school pilot Sach, go to an air base to help a pal out...but find themselves...
View Movie
Triple Trouble
Slip and Sach take the rap for a robbery they did not commit in order to uncover the real robbers, w...
View Movie
Master Minds
When Sach eats too much sugar, he goes into a trance whereby he's able to predict the future. Slip t...
View Movie
High Society
Sach receives news that he is the heir to the Terwilliger Debussy Jones fortune. Accompanied by his ...
View Movie
Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar
In this musical gem, big-hearted Jubal Bristol (Arnold Stang) takes it upon himself to mount a count...
View Movie
Bowery Battalion
Slip, Sach and the gang think an air-raid test is for real and join the Army....
View Movie
Blues Busters
The Bowery Boys open a nightclub after Sach has his tonsils out and wakes up with a singing voice....
View Movie
Private Eyes
After being punched in the nose, Sach finds out that he has the ability to read minds. Slip and the ...
View Movie
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, war...
View Movie
Follow the Leader
Muggs and Glimpy, two East Side Kids in the army, return to their neighborhood, supposedly on furlou...
View Movie
Hell's Kitchen
A paroled convict's efforts to improve conditions at a boys' reform school alarm the school's corrup...
View Movie
The Beloved Brat
Roberta Morgan is being raised in a wealthy home where her mother is occupied with her society-club ...
View Movie
In Fast Company
The Bowery Boys come to the rescue when a corrupt taxi company puts the squeeze on several independe...
View Movie
Crashing Las Vegas
An electric shock enables Sach to predict numbers, so the Bowery Boys are off to Las Vegas to win en...
View Movie
On Dress Parade
The final feature in the "Dead End Kids" film series finds a youth trying to adjust to life at a mil...
View Movie
Gallant Sons
When a teenager's father is accused of murder, the boy and his high-school classmates set out to fin...
View Movie
Here Come the Marines
After Slip is drafted into the Marines, the rest of the gang volunteers so they can be with him. Sac...
View Movie
Trouble Makers
Slip and Sach are in the sidewalk star-gazing business when they see a murder committed in a room at...
View Movie
'Neath Brooklyn Bridge
The East Side Kids find a young girl in the apartment of a man who has just been murdered. Believing...
View Movie
Terror in the Pharaoh's Tomb
Our intrepid adventurers Ace Zucco and Mike Flannigan from Terror in the Tropics return for another ...
View Movie
Mr. Muggs Rides Again
After having been framed by gamblers, Muggs is barred from riding in horse races. Snce he can no lon...
View Movie
Blonde Dynamite
While Louie is on vacation, the boys turn The Sweet Shop into an escort service, and soon find a gro...
View Movie
Angels with Broken Wings
Charlotte Lord, a widow in her early forties and owner of Manhattan's smartest modiste shop, is abou...
View Movie
Lucky Losers
Slip and Sach's boss, David J. Thurston, has allegedly committed suicide. Slip finds a book of match...
View Movie
Mr. Hex
Sach is given a post-hypnotic suggestion that turns him into a championship prizefighter....
View Movie
Docks of New York
The East Side Kids are pursued by killers seeking a stolen necklace....
View Movie
Hard Boiled Mahoney
Sach just lost his job as an assistant to a private detective, but he wasn't paid. Slip goes with hi...
View Movie
Portia on Trial
Lady lawyer Portia Merryman defends woebegone Elizabeth Manners, who is on trial for shooting her lo...
View Movie
That Gang of Mine
A street kid has dreams of becoming a jockey. He gets his chance when he and his gang discover a poo...
View Movie
Clancy Street Boys
Muggs' rich Uncle Pete is coming to visit. Unfortunately, Muggs' late father had bragged that he had...
View Movie
Smuggler's Cove
Slip and Sach are working as cleaners in a high rise building. They enter an office to clean it when...
View Movie
Sunday Punch
Ma Galestrum (Connie Gilchrist) is a boardinghouse owner whose tenants are a group of aspiring boxer...
View Movie
Hullabaloo
A radio actor faces trouble when a science-fiction story causes the audience to panic....
View Movie
Block Busters
Muggs, Glimpy and the rest of the Kids set about to Americanize affable young French refugee Jean Ro...
View Movie
Mr. Muggs Steps Out
Ordered by a judge to get a job, Muggs McGinnis is hired by wealthy Mrs. Murray, who has a penchant ...
View Movie
Come Out Fighting
The police commissioner asks some local street kids to toughen up his ballet-loving son....
View Movie
Bowery Champs
Copy boys Muggs and Glimpy investigate a murder. They locate the ex-wife of the murdered man and bec...
View Movie
Hold That Baby!
While working in a laundromat, the boys find a baby hidden among the linen. They soon find out that ...
View Movie
Live Wires
Slip gets fired from his job at a construction company for decking his boss. His sister, who got him...
View Movie
Fighting Fools
The boys are working at the local boxing arena where their friend, Jimmy Higgins, is boxing. During ...
View Movie
News Hounds
Slip and Sach are working for a local newspaper as a reporter and photographer, respectively. Slip w...
View Movie
The Bowery Boys: Legends of Laughter
Thirty years of film clips, interviews, outtakes, stills and more pay tribute to the lives and work ...
View Movie
Down in San Diego
A group of neighborhood teenagers discover some suspicious goings-on near a naval base in San Diego,...
View Movie
Private Detective
A female private eye joins forces with a police detective to investigate the suspicious murder of a ...
View Movie
Invisible Stripes
A gangster is unable to go straight after returning home from prison....
View Movie
Headin' East
A cattle rancher comes to the aid of farmers by heading to NYC to stop the racketeers hijacking thei...
View Movie
Classic Comedy Teams
Steve Allen hosts this collection of clips of some of the greatest comedy teams in movie and televis...
View Movie