Tommy Kelly (actor)
| Tommy Kelly | |
|---|---|
 Tommy Kelly as Tom Sawyer (1938) | |
| Born |
April 6, 1925 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Film actor |
| Years active | 1938-1950 |
Tommy Kelly (born April 6, 1925, in New York City, New York) is an American former child actor.
Career
Tommy Kelly was in Bronx as the son of a fireman in humble circumstances,[1]'. He began his acting career at the age of twelve when he was selected to play the role of Tom Sawyer in the 1938 movie The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, an adaption of Mark Twains classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.[1] Approximately 25000 boys had auditioned for that role and it is said that famous producer David O. Selznick handpicked Kelly for the role..[2] Despite Kelly reached good critics for his performance, the film was only a poor financial success. He also played the lead role in Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus later that year as Bill Peck.[3]
In 1939, Tommy Kelly had a small but memorable part in Gone with the Wind, as the crying boy in a band in Atlanta, while the death lists are given out. As he reached adulthood, his roles in movies were minor and he was often uncredited.[4] He appeared in The Magnificent Yankee[3] in 1950, which turned out to be his last of 19 films before ending his acting career.[4]
As with many other stars, the war years found Tommy in the U.S. Army, where he served in the infantry, not the USO as did some other child stars; he fought in the European theater, participating in the critical campaign for the bridge at Remagen.
Later life
Tommy Kelly worked in Liberia as an administrator for the Peace Corps towards the end of the 1960s.[2] He also held a teaching job in Washington D.C. in the 1980s. Ever conscious of the value of education, after obtaining a PHd under the G.I. Bill (his thesis focused, among other things, on the relative advantages of children who were educated in U.S. military dependent schools abroad, "Dr. Kelly" served as an International Relations Advisor, in the International Organization Affairs (IOA) unit of the Office of International Cooperation and Development (OICD) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he prepared positions for the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, with personal responsibility for OECD, and United States delegations to the governing boards of United Nations Organizations concerned with Food and Agriculture, a position he held until his retirement from Federal Service.
During that time he was an occasional guest of the American Film Institute (AFI), although he was generally reticent to discuss his years as an actor, after retiring from Hollywood at the age of 25.[4] Tommy Kelly has been married to his wife Sue for over 60 years and has six children. He lives today in North Carolina.
Filmography
References
External links |