Name
Bobby Jordan
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1923-04-01
Deathday
1965-09-10 (42 years old)
Place of Birth
Harrison, New York, USA
Biography
Though he was the youngest, Jordan was the first of the boys who made up the Dead End Kids to work in films with a role in a 1933 Universal short. In 1935, he became one of the original Dead End Kids by winning the role of Angel in Sydney Kingsley's Broadway drama Dead End about life in the slums of the east side of New York City. The play was performed at the Belasco Theatre and ran for three years with over 600 performances. He appeared for the first season and the beginning of the second but left in mid-November 1936. He returned in time to join the others in 1937 in Hollywood, California to make the movie version of the play, starring big names such as Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, and Claire Trevor.
Following the making of Dead End, Jordan found himself "released" from his contract at Goldwyn, and, subsequently, he appeared at Warner Brothers with the rest of the Dead End Kids. After one year, Warners released most of them, but kept Leo Gorcey and Jordan as solo performers. Jordan appeared (as "Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom") in Warner's Damon Runyon comedy A Slight Case of Murder (1938) and at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Young Tom Edison (1940).
In 1940, Jordan appeared in the film Military Academy and accepted an offer from producer Sam Katzman to star in a new tough-kid series called "The East Side Kids." Leo Gorcey soon joined him, then Huntz Hall, and the trio continued to lead the series through 1943, when Jordan entered the United States Army during World War II as a foot soldier in the 97th Infantry Division. He was subsequently involved in an elevator accident, when the elevator fell five floors, that forced him to have surgery to remove his right kneecap.
Known For
7.531
Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: ...
5.9
Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventio...
6.3
A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk....
6.4
Former bootlegger Remy Marco has a slight problem with foreclosing bankers, a prospective ...
6.4
The research, development, and deployment of the first atomic bomb, as well as the bombing...
4.2
The East Side Kids try to fix up a house for newlyweds, but find the place next door "haun...
6.5
Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in j...
5.2
A San Francisco lawyer uses a woman to lure a merchant seaman worth a legendary fortune....
6.4
In the slums, teenager Frankie Warren hangs out with a rowdy gang who one day knock him ou...
- 1956 High Tor as 3rd Sailor
- 1943 Kid Dynamite as Danny Lions
- 1942 Let's Get Tough as Danny Connors
- 1942 Mr. Wise Guy as Danny Collins
- 1940 Pride of the Bowery as Danny
- 1939 They Made Me a Criminal as Angel
- 1939 Dust Be My Destiny as Jimmy Glenn
- 1938 Reformatory as Pinkey Leonard
- 1938 A Slight Case of Murder as Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom
- 1937 Dead End as Angel
- 1938 Angels with Dirty Faces as Swing
- 1941 Spooks Run Wild as Danny
- 1941 Bowery Blitzkrieg as Danny Breslin
- 1956 The Man Is Armed as Thorne (as Bob Jordan)
- 1943 Ghosts on the Loose as Danny
- 1946 Spook Busters as Bobby
- 1938 Crime School as Lester 'Squirt' Smith
- 1940 Boys of the City as Danny Dolan
- 1941 Flying Wild as Danny Graham
- 1946 Bowery Bombshell as Bobby
- 1947 Bowery Buckaroos as Bobby
- 1939 Angels Wash Their Faces as Bernie Smith
- 1942 Smart Alecks as Danny Stevens
- 1949 Treasure of Monte Cristo as Tony Torecelli
- 1991 Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook as Danny (archive footage)
- 1938 Swingtime in the Movies as Crime School Kid (uncredited)
- 1939 Hell's Kitchen as Joel "Joey" Richards
- 1946 In Fast Company as Bobby
- 1939 On Dress Parade as Cadet Ronny Morgan
- 1939 Off the Record as Mickey Fallon
- 1942 Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4 as Self
- 1942 'Neath Brooklyn Bridge as Danny Lyons
- 1943 Adventures of the Flying Cadets as Jinx Roberts
- 1940 Give Us Wings as Rap
- 1946 Mr. Hex as Bobby
- 1938 My Bill as Reginald Colbrook
- 1955 The Matchmaking Marshal as Steven 'Steve' Manson
- 1940 You're Not So Tough as Rap
- 1934 Kid Millions as Tourist (uncredited)
- 1940 Young Tom Edison as Joe 'Joey' Dingle
- 1940 That Gang of Mine as Danny Dolan
- 1943 Clancy Street Boys as Danny
- 1942 Junior Army as Jockey
- 1944 Bowery Champs as Bobby Jordan
- 1946 Live Wires as Bobby
- 1947 News Hounds as Bobby
- 1943 Keep 'Em Slugging as Tommy
- 1953 Secret of Outlaw Flats as Sandy Smith
- 1943 Destroyer as Sobbing Sailor
- 1947 Hard Boiled Mahoney as Bobby
- 1953 The Eddie Cantor Story as Customer
- 1940 Military Academy as Dick Hill
- 1947 The Beginning or the End as Radioman on Tinian Receiving A-Bomb Message
- 1986 Classic Comedy Teams as The East Side Kids (archive footage)
- 1951 Dragnet ( 2 episodes )
- 1959 Rawhide ( 0 episode )
- 1955 The Millionaire ( 1 episode ) as Press Agent
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Boy at Piano
- 1957 Richard Diamond, Private Detective ( 1 episode ) as Connie Thorpe
- 1957 M Squad ( 1 episode ) as Car Lot Employee
- 1951 The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok ( 2 episodes )
- 1957 Casey Jones ( 1 episode ) as Billy Mapes
- 1957 Maverick ( 1 episode ) as Willy
- 1960 Route 66 ( 1 episode ) as Garage Attendant (uncredited)
- 1957 Maverick ( 1 episode ) as Bank Teller (uncredited)
- 1958 77 Sunset Strip ( 1 episode ) as Auto Mechanic (uncredited)
- 1959 Bonanza ( 1 episode ) as Thug #2
- 1970 The Odd Couple ( 1 episode ) as Doris Atkins
- 1951 Boston Blackie ( 1 episode ) as Waiter (uncredited)
- 1955 Highway Patrol ( 1 episode ) as Ed
- 1951 The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok ( 1 episode ) as Conductor
