Tom Dugan

Tom Dugan
Born	(1889-01-01)1 January 1889 Dublin, Ireland
Died	7 March 1955(1955-03-07) (aged 66) Redlands, California, USA
Occupation	Actor
Years active	(in films) 1927–1955
Spouse(s)	Marie Engle (?–?) Marie Raymond (?–?)

Tom Dugan (1 January 1889 – 7 March 1955) was an Irish film actor. He appeared in more than 260 films between 1927 and 1955. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and died in Redlands, California.

Life and career

At an early age Tom Dugan's family moved to Philadelphia where he was educated at the Philadelphia High School. After leaving school he tried three trades (shoe cutting, neck tie cutting and paper hanging) in quick succession but he had a good tenor voice, so he decided on show business. He appeared in a travelling "medicine show", then a minstrel troupe before going on stage. He was a headliner for the Keith Circuit in America for several years. He also played in musical comedies in New York and in vaudeville theatres like Earl Carroll's Vanities. He eventually became a Broadway comedian.

Tom Dugan appeared in nearly 270 films between 1927 and 1955 and had also some television roles near the end of his life.^[1] He supported comedians like Charley Chase and appeared in Lights of New York (1928), the first all-talking picture. Dugan also worked as an actor and perhaps also writer for the Hal Roach studios in the mid-1930s. He mostly played small roles, often as a Irish cop, gangster or cab driver. His best film role was perhaps the Polnish actor Bronski who disguises himself as Adolf Hitler in Ernst Lubitsch's classic To Be or Not to Be (1942).^[2]

Selected filmography

External links

• Tom Dugan at the Internet Movie Database
• Tom Dugan at AllMovie
• Tom Dugan at Find a Grave

References