Bernard Gorcey

Bernard Gorcey (9 January 1886 – 11 September 1955) was a Russian actor. He was a professional vaudeville actor on Broadway who starred in 72 movies.^[1]

Acting career

Very early on Gorcey focused on comedy roles in his acting career, rather than trying to get the lead role. Between 1907 and 1937 he had a role in the following productions: 1907. Stage Play: Tom Jones. Musical comedy/opera (1912). Stage Play: What Ails You? (1918). Stage Play: Somebody's Sweetheart. Musical (1920) (as "A Mysterious Conspirator"). Stage Play: Always You. 1922 (as "Isaac Cohen"). Stage Play: Abie's Irish Rose. Comedy; 1923. Stage Play: Wildflower. Musical (as "Gaston La Roche") (1925). Stage Play: Song of the Flame (as “Count Boris”) (1927). Stage Play: Cherry Blossoms, Musical (as "George Washington Goto") (1930). Stage Play: Pressing Business. Comedy. (1931). Stage Play: Joy of Living. Comedy (1931). Stage Play: Wonder Boy. Comedy. (as "Commodore Cohen")(1932). Stage Play: Keeping Expenses Down. (as "Kent J. Goldstein") (1935). Stage Play: Creeping Fire. Melodrama. (as "Mr. Goodman"), (1935). Stage Play: Satellite. Farce (as "Max Goldblatz"), (1937).^[2]

The most successful show of Gorcey’s entire career was Abie’s Irish Rose.^[3]

Other professions

He also did some radio work also, for the Popeye Show. At 52 years old, he began working in movies. From 1940 he appeared in 55 movies, with minor roles with both Monogram and Warner Bros.^[4]

Forty-four of these were with sons Leo and David. Between 1946 to 1955, there were between four and five Bowery Boys movies annually. Bernard always had the role of Louie Dumbrowski.

Personal life

Gorcey was of both Jewish and Swiss lineage. In approximately 1914, he married Josephine Condon who was Irish-Catholic and 15 years his junior. They emigrated to America where Gorcey was active in show business, while his wife stayed home with their children. They had them very young. At 14, Josephine became a mother to Fred and three years later, son Leo was born. They had their third child, another boy, David, in 1921. What ultimately gave the family some semblance of financial stability was when Gorcey played Isaac Cohen in the long-running ‘Abie’s Irish Rose,’ a role he held for the majority of the five-and-a-half years it was playing.

However, money issues were to return during the Great Depression of 1929. The family had to move so many times that as Gorcey recorded, “we would have made a humming bird seem like a statue.” It was hard to make any real money and his sons were only making an average of $5 a week, when there was work available. He was still doing okay with his career, on Broadway, but at the same time, his marriage was falling apart and his wife started a relationship with a gigolo and thereafter a guy who said he was an opera singer (who hadn’t sung for 15 years) whom she married and with whom she had her first daughter. Meanwhile Gorcey deserted his sons until 1935 when he reconciled with Leo and David. Encouraging them in the movie business helped to really restore their relationship.

Death

On August 31, 1955, he was driving a car that smashed into a bus on 4th & LaBrea, Los Angeles. On September 11, 1955, he died from his injuries.^[5]

References