Billy Halop (February 11, 1920) – (November 9, 1976) was an American actor. February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... November 9 is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 52 days remaining. ... 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

He came from a theatrical family; his mother was a dancer, and his sister Florence Halop was a radio actress. After several years as a well-paid radio juvenile, Billy was cast as Tommy Gordon in the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End in 1935, where he was accorded star status. Traveling to Hollywood with the rest of the Dead End Kids when Samuel Goldwyn produced a film version of the play in 1937, Billy had no trouble lining up important roles, specializing in tough kids, bullies, and reform school inmates in such major pictures as Dust be My Destiny (1939) and Tom Brown's School Days (1940). Diminutive comic actress and sister of Billy Halop (qv), Florence succeeded Selma Diamond (qv) on Night Court after Diamonds death from cancer, but rather bizarrely succumbed herself to the same disease during the run of the show. ... For the musical group, see Cul de Sac (group). ... The Dead End Kids were six young actors from New York who appeared in Sidney Kingsleys play Dead End in 1935 on Broadway. ... Samuel Goldwyn (August 17, 1879, Warsaw, Poland – January 31, 1974, Los Angeles, California, United States) was a major producer of motion pictures. ... Tom Browns Schooldays, first published in 1857, is a novel by Thomas Hughes, set at a public school, Rugby School for Boys, in the 1830s when Hughes himself had been a student there. ...

A long-standing rivalry between Halop and fellow Dead-Ender Leo Gorcey led to his break with the Dead End Kids and its offspring groups, the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys. Leo Gorcey (June 3, 1917 - June 2, 1969) is an American actor. ... The Dead End Kids were six young actors from New York who appeared in Sidney Kingsleys play Dead End in 1935 on Broadway. ... The East Side Kids were one of the off-shoots from the original Dead End Kids series of films, and contained several of the original members who appeared in the series from time to time, most notably: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan and Gabriel Dell. ... The Dead End Kids were six young actors from New York who appeared in Sidney Kingsleys play Dead End in 1935 on Broadway. ...

After serving in World War II, Halop found that he'd grown too old to be effective in the roles that had brought him fame. At one point, he was reduced to starring in a cheap East Side Kids imitation at PRC studios, Gas House Kids (1946). Diminishing film work, marital difficulties, and a drinking problem eventually ate away at Halop's show business career.

In 1960, he married a multiple sclerosis victim, and the nursing skills he learned while taking care of his wife led him to steady work as a registered nurse at St. John's Hospital in Malibu. For the rest of his life, Billy Halop supplemented his nursing income with small TV and movie roles, gaining a measure of prominence as Archie Bunker's cab-driving pal Bert Munson on the '70s TV series All in the Family. All in the Family is a popular and acclaimed American situation comedy that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971 until April 8, 1979, when the final original episode aired. ...

External links

• Billy Halop at the Internet Movie Database