Tom Drake

Tom Drake (August 5, 1918 – August 11, 1982), born Alfred Sinclair Alderdice in Brooklyn, New York, was an American actor. Drake made films starting in 1940 and continuing until the mid-1970s, and also made TV acting appearances.^[1]

Career

Drake was excused from serving in World War II due to heart problems.^[1] Despite this limitation, he did act in British training films. He got his break after starring in the 1942 Broadway smash Janie,^[2] after which he was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

After a number of films, Drake co-starred with Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) as John Truett, the boy next door. He appeared in more than forty films in all, including Mrs. Parkington (1944), The Green Years (1946), as composer Richard Rodgers in the biography Words and Music (1948) and, in a role at the opposite end of the character spectrum from John Truett, as the leader of a gang of criminals in Warlock (1959). He also had a minor role in the movie The Singing Nun (1966), playing Ed Sullivan's producer Mr. Fitzpatrick.

From 1950 thereafter, Drake had roles in numerous television series, such as NBC's Cimarron City and Banacek, ABC's 77 Sunset Strip, Land of the Giants and The Streets of San Francisco, CBS's Perry Mason and Lassie.

Death

Tom Drake died of lung cancer on August 11, 1982. He is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.^[3]

Filmography

Features:

• Our Town (1940)
• The Mortal Storm (1940)
• The Howards of Virginia (1940)
• Northern Pursuit (1943)
• Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
• The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
• Maisie Goes to Reno (1944)
• Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944)
• Mrs. Parkington (1944)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• This Man's Navy (1945)
• Main Street After Dark (1945) (voice only)
• The Green Years (1946)
• Courage of Lassie (1946)
• Faithful in My Fashion (1946)
• I'll Be Yours (1947)
• The Beginning or the End (1947)
• Cass Timberlane (1947)
• Alias a Gentleman (1948)
• Hills of Home (1948)
• Words and Music (1948)
• Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949)
• Scene of the Crime (1949)
• The Great Rupert (1950)
• Never Trust a Gambler (1951)
• Disc Jockey (1951)
• FBI Girl (1951)
• Sangaree (1953)
• Betrayed Women (1955)
• Sudden Danger (1955)
• The Cyclops (1957)
• Date with Disaster (1957)
• Raintree County (1957)
• Money, Women and Guns (1958)
• Warlock (1959)
• The Bramble Bush (1960)
• House of the Black Death (1965)
• The Sandpiper (1965)
• Johnny Reno (1966)
• The Singing Nun (1966)
• Red Tomahawk (1967)
• Deadly Inheritance (1968)
• Warkill (1968)
• Cycle Psycho (1973)
• The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974)

Short Subjects:

• Some of the Best (1949)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tom Drake.

• Tom Drake at the Internet Movie Database
• Tom Drake's credits at Internet Broadway Database, credited as Alfred Alderdice