HWOF

Eddie Foy, Jr.

Source: Freebase

Eddie Foy Jr. (February 4, 1905 – July 15, 1983) was an American character actor. Born Edwin Fitzgerald Jr. in New Rochelle, New York, the son of vaudevillian Eddie Foy and his third wife, Madeline Morando, he was one of the “Seven Little Foys” immortalized in the 1955 film of the same name. He had the longest performing career and was the only one to appear in movies (though six Foys appeared in two short films directed by Bryan Foy). Throughout the 1930s and ’40s he appeared in dozens of B movies. He portrayed his own father in four feature films – Frontier Marshal (1939), Lillian Russell (1940), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and Wilson, and again in a 1964 telefilm about the family’s early days in vaudeville. Additional film credits include The Farmer Takes a Wife, The Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, and Gidget Goes Hawaiian.

Foy made his Broadway debut in Florenz Ziegfeld’s 1930 extravanaganza Show Girl. He also appeared in At Home Abroad, The Cat and the Fiddle, The Red Mill, The Pajama Game, Donnybrook!, and Rumple, for which he received a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Musical.

Foy found steady work with the advent of television. In addition to a leading role in the first hour-long sitcom, Fair Exchange, he made numerous guest appearances on such programs as The Gisele MacKenzie Show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Glynis, My Living Doll, Burke’s Law, ABC Stage 67, My Three Sons, and Nanny and the Professor.

• Born: Edwin Fitzgerald, Jr. February 4, 1905 New Rochelle, New York USA
• Died: July 15, 1983 (aged 78) Woodland Hills, California USA
• Occupation: character actor
• Years active: 1915–77
• Spouse: First married to Barbara Newberry (divorced). Then Anna Marie McKenney (Mac Foy)

Read more about Eddie Foy Jr. at Wikipedia or at the Internet Movie Database

Today In Theatre History: MARCH 9
Playbill Combined , 2010-03-09 05:00:00
1856 Comedian Eddie Foy is born today. He'll star in vaudeville and on Broadway, notably in Mr. Hamlet of Broadway, The Earl and the Girl and Piff! Paff!! Pouf!!!. His son, Eddie Foy Jr., will also star on Broadway.