Biography[]
Character: Tommy Bupp
Birthday: February 10, 1924
Place of Birth: Norfolk City, Virginia, USA
Date of Death: December 24, 1983
Place of Death: Somewhere in Orange County, California, USA
First Short: Hi'-Neighbor!
Last Short: Hi'-Neighbor!
Number of Shorts: 1
History: Edmond Thomas "Tommy" Bupp is an American child actor who starred in several films through the 1930s, and was briefly in the Our Gang series. He was one of the four Bupp children, the older brother of Sonny Bupp, who was seen in Men In Fright, Jane Bupp and Ann Bupp, who traveled from New York City to Los Angeles to make movies.
On stage, screen, radio and voice of cartoon characters. Tommy Bupp and his family were always on the move. From Florida to New York to Washington and finally ending up in California. He started in the movies in 1933 and finished in 1941. After sister June and Anne, Tommy was the third in the family to make his way in the movies as an extra, but it wasn't long before he was a feature player. He had the look that Hollywood wanted, dusty hair and freckled faced. He was once described as that boy with the laughing eyes. Just about perfect for those scenes with street kids or westerns. His first feature role was in "A Girl of the Limberlost." He eventually landed roles with W.C. Fields in "It's a Gift," John Wayne in "Conflict," Dick Foran in "Cherokee Strip," Ronald Reagan in "Love is on the Air" and with cowboy stars Tim McCoy and Tex Ritter. He dubbed voices for the leading characters in animated cartoons, such as UB Iwerks' "Reg'lar Fellows" and Walt Disney's Silly Symphony "Broken Toys." He was also heard on the Radio as Buster in "Those O'Malleys." He was also seen on stage at the Los Angeles Theater production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "What becomes of the Children" at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. He often said that he didn't like the movie days, and that it stole his childhood, but his brother Sonny claimed that Tommy liked it and loved the "Star" treatment. He was the first American child actor to go to England to make a movie, which became "Hey! Hey! USA" in 1938 with Edgar Kennedy and England's Will Hay and a then unknown Roddy McDowall, and he went first class all the way. On the way home on the Queen Mary, he was invited to a horse breeder's Kentucky home for a visit, where he was given a race horse. Back in Hollywood he and Sonny waved to the crowd at Christmas parades, such Santa Clause Lane, down Hollywood Boulevard every night with different screen personalities. Through all this he was really just a regular boy with hobbies such as stamp collecting, football, baseball and marbles. He served as a GM1 with the United States Navy during World War II.
Sonny had also starred in "Citizen Kane," one of the top one hundred movies of the 20th century, as Kane's son. His sister Ann was an extra in "Gone with the Wind," and Tommy had a scene in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." His older sister, June Bupp, starred in the 1935 movie, "Border Vengeance." After the war he worked as a gas station attendant, and then as an electrical wholesaler for thirty years and died of cancer at the age of fifty-nine.
List of Shorts[]
Other Projects[]
- Babes In Toyland (1934) (uncredited) - with Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Henry Brandon, Scott Beckett, George Billings, Billy Bletcher, Jean Darling, Johnny Downs, Marianne Edwards, Cullen Johnson, Payne Johnson, Richard Jones, Gus Leonard, Sam Lufkin, Jackie Lynn Taylor, and Jerry Tucker
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) (uncredited) - with George Billings, Hugh Chapman, David Holt, Philip Hurlic, and Marcia Mae Jones
- Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) (uncredited) - with Shirley Coates, Philip Hurlic, John Lester Johnson, Richard Jones, Margaret Mann, and Delmar Watson