Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 260, 4 June 1969 — Leo Gorcey Dies, 52 [ARTICLE]

Leo Gorcey Dies, 52

OAKLAND, Calif. (UPI)-Mil-lions of movie fans of the 1930s knew actor Leo Gorcey as the leader of Hollywood’s “Dead End Kids”—an urban slum boy with a heart of gold. Gorcey, whose funeral services will be Friday, rose to stardom in the street kid role, and never escaped it the rest of his professional life. He died Monday of a recurring ailment at Merritt Hospital in Oakland. The hospital declined to disclose the exact cause of death. Gorcey jwould have been 52 Tuesday. The son of an actor, Gorcey was born in New York City. When he was 20, he and five other youths were cast as a gang of toughs in the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley’s play, “Dead End.” * Two years later the six appeared in Samuel Goldwyn's movie version of the play, and achieved group stardom. Thereafter, Hollywood relent- [ lessly type cast them in a score ■of movies that were variations (on the “Dead End” theme, i in the role of “Mugsy,” I Gorcey was a pugnacious wise (guy who wore a felt beanie and jtalked out of the corner of his I mouth. The other “kids” were lluntz Hall as “Dippy,” Billy Halop as “Tommy,” Gabriel Dell as “T. 8.,” Bernard Punsley as “Milty,” and Bobby Jordan as “Angel.” Gorcey’s private life was turbulent. He was married five times, with three of the marriages ending in stormy divorces. In 1948 he was cleared of a charge of firing five shots at his second wife.

Mrs. Evalene 6. Gorcey, when she entered his Van Nuys, Calif., home with two private detectives. He once served five days in Los Angeles city jail for driving in excess of 99 miles an hour on Wilshire Boulevard. Gorcey gave up acting in 1956 and settled down on a farm near the rural town of Los Molinos, in Northern California. He reportedly owned commercial property there. Like the other five “Dead End Kids,” Gorcey was not a product of the slums. All came from middle-class families. Gorcey leaves his widow, the former Mary Gannon, whom he wed last July 12. He is survived by two daughters. Mrs. Jan Heed, of Los Molinos, and Miss Brandy Jo Gorcey, of Bed Bluff, Calif.; and a son, Leo Gorcey Jr., stationed with the armed forces in Washington. D.C. Funeral services will be in Red Bluff, followed by interment at Los Molinos,