Regis Toomey
| Regis Toomey | |
|---|---|
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| Born | John Regis Toomey August 13, 1898 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | October 12, 1991 (aged 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | actor |
| Years active | 1929–87 |
| Spouse | Kathryn Scott (1925–81) |
John Regis Toomey (August 13, 1898 – October 12, 1991) was an American film and television actor.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey and attended Peabody High School. He initially pondered a law career, but acting won out and he established himself as a musical stage performer.
[edit] Career
Educated in dramatics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he became a brother of Sigma Chi, Toomey began as a stock actor and eventually made it to Broadway. Toomey was a singer on stage until throat problems (acute laryngitis) while touring in Europe stopped that aspect of his career. In 1929, he appeared in his first films, initially starting out as a leading man, but finding more success as a character actor, sans his toupee.
Toomey appeared in over 180 films, including classics such as The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart. In the 1954-1955 television season, Toomey appeared as Joe Mulligan, a police officer in Los Angeles and the father of the Mickey Rooney character Mickey Mulligan, in NBC's short-lived sitcom, The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan.
In 1956, he appeared as a judge, with Chuck Connors as "Andy", in the third episode, "The Nevada Nightingale", of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. Toomey thereafter appeared in another anthology series too as the character "Harry" in the 1960 episode "The Doctor and the Redhead", with Dick Powell and Felicia Farr, of CBS's The DuPont Show with June Allyson.
In the 1961–1962 television season, he appeared in a supporting role with George Nader in the syndicated crime drama Shannon about insurance investigators. From 1963–1966, Toomey was one of the stars of the ABC crime drama, Burke's Law, starring Gene Barry, and in the Rawhide episode Incident of the Tinkers Dam as TJ Wishbone. He played Sergeant Les Hart, one of the detectives assisting the murder investigations of the millionaire police captain Amos Burke. He also guest-starred on dozens of television programs, including the "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" episode of Maverick.
In 1941, Toomey appeared in You're in the Army Now, in which he and Jane Wyman had the longest screen kiss in cinema history: 3 minutes and 5 seconds.[1]
[edit] Selected filmography
- Street of Chance (1930)
- Other Men's Women (1931)
- Murder by the Clock (1931)
- Graft (1931)
- Under 18 (1931)
- 24 Hours (1931)
- Shopworn (1932)
- Murder on the Blackboard (1934)
- G Men (1935)
- Back in Circulation (1937)
- The Invisible Menace (1938)
- The Phantom Creeps (1939 serial)
- Union Pacific (1939)
- Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) uncredited
- Thunder Afloat (1939)
- His Girl Friday (1940)
- Northwest Passage (1940)
- 'Til We Meet Again (1940)
- North West Mounted Police (1940)
- Arizona (1940)
- Meet John Doe (1941)
- Dive Bomber (1941)
- They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
- You're in the Army Now (1941)
- Tennessee Johnson (1942)
- Adventures of the Flying Cadets (1943 serial)
- Destroyer (1943)
- Phantom Lady (1944)
- Follow the Boys (1944)
- Song of the Open Road (1944)
- Spellbound (1945)
- Follow That Woman (1945)
- The Big Sleep (1946)
- The Guilty (1947)
- The Bishop's Wife (1947)
- The Big Fix (1947)
- Raw Deal (1948)
- Station West (1948)
- The Boy with Green Hair (1948)
- Mighty Joe Young (1949)
- Come to the Stable (1949)
- The Devil's Henchman (1949)
- Beyond the Forest (1949)
- Cry Danger (1951)
- Show Boat (1951)
- My Pal Gus (1952)
- Island in the Sky (1953)
- The High and the Mighty (1954)
- Drums Across the River (1954)
- Guys and Dolls (1955)
- The Last Sunset (1961)
- Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)
- Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)
- Gunn (1967)
- Change of Habit (1969)
