LARRY SIMMS (1934-2009)
Larry is another forgotten name but a face you will remember if like me you remember watching the "Blondie" movie series on Sunday mornings. Simms played Baby Dumpling in that successful series from 1938 to 1950. After he is through with acting, Larry joined the Navy and then began another career as an engineer, before retiring to Thailand. Some reports claim that Larry was more interested in the technical aspects of filmmaking than in acting, which explains his career changes. Sadly, the social security death index reported the child star as died on June 17, 2009 - no media outlet ever reported it.
JULIE ALLRED (1954-2011)
Born in Philadelphia to a Jewish family, Julie landed her one and only film role in the 1962 thriller "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" (1962) after winning a contest. The played the younger Bette Davis character from 1917. After appearing as the young Jane Hudson she never returned to the screen or any other form of acting thereafter due to the religious beliefs of her family. She spent the remainder of her life living in her birthplace of Pennsylvania married to a dentist and later raised a family. She was married with four children when she died of diabetes in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania on December 29, 2011.
TRACY STRATFORD (BORN 1955)
Who is Tracy Stratford you may ask? Well, I discovered her on an episode of the the great series "The Twilight Zone". She was in the episode called "The Living Doll". She played the stepdaughter of an angry and mean Telley Savales. Stratford, born on January 19, 1955 in Los Angeles, California was also the first voice of Lucy van Pelt. Stratford provided the voice for Lucy in the first Peanuts animated television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, in 1965. She also appeared on numerous other television shows like "The Loretta Young Show" and "Ben Casey" before retiring from acting in 1969. Not much is known about her but she did appear in a 2001 documentary on the making of "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
You always have the most interesting posts!!
ReplyDeleteI never watched the "Blondie" movies, and "The Twilight Zone" was always too scary for me. I do, though, watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" every year...it's a family tradition. Obviously, I've seen Miss Stratford's name on the credits.
"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is easily one of my 30 favorite movies. It was fun learning a bit about the young Baby Jane. I wonder why her family gave their permission for her to do that movie if it was against their religious beliefs. She was quite young when she died just a few months ago.
Larry Simms also played Peter Baily's oldest son, Pete, in the Frank Capra classic It's A Wonderful Life
ReplyDeleteAnd Austin, Barbara Stanwyck's son in the Gaylord Sisters
DeleteAnd was a page boy in Mr Smith Goes To Washington
DeleteEerie that I am reading this as I am watching It's A Wonderful Life.
DeleteHe certainly did play Peter Baileys son. Im so glad to hear he transitioned so well and lived on for many years.. Thank you Larry for the Wonderful memories and of course your service to our great nation.
DeleteLarry Lee Simms portrayed the grandson of Peter Bailey, the son of George Bailey on the Frank Capra Classic, "It's A Wonderful Life". He also portrayed Baby Dumpling, later renamed Alexander, on the "Blondie" film series.
DeleteI wish someone would clear up the Julie Allred story. She grew up in Long Beach, CA in a large Mormon family. Went to Calls Fine Arts Center for Dancing, Also in Long Beach, CA. We all knew she was "Baby Jane". So why is she represented as being from Pennsylvania?
DeleteTrue that she did not pursue a career after that film.
There are several Julie Allred in this world. My youngest daughter is named Julie. If you care to do a search you'd find out just how many there are.
DeleteTracy Stradford is a librarian, and is awesome
ReplyDeletehow do you know she is a librarian? carlosaperez1972@yahoo.com....
DeleteHe doesn't
DeleteIf she is a librarian, or not... Where is she??
DeleteNot that hard to to find just use google:
Deletehttp://noblemania.blogspot.com/2014/06/peanuts-interview-tracy-shaw-lucy-in.html
She is a librarian at my high school I went to. Squalicum High in Bellingham, WA
DeleteYeah she was at my high school when I went there, don't know if she is anymore but I went to Squalicum High in Bellingham WA
DeleteCould anybody please tell me what ever happened to Philip Hepburn? He starred in the 50"s movie Bright Road with Dorothy Dandrige and Harry Belafonte.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tribune242.com/obituaries/2016/jul/29/philip-hepburn/
DeleteI am not sure if this is him, but the age would be about right.
http://www.tribune242.com/obituaries/2016/jul/29/philip-hepburn/
DeleteIm not sure this is him, but the age and image seem to match
http://www.tribune242.com/obituaries/2016/jul/29/philip-hepburn/
DeleteI am not 100% sure this is him, but the age and picture seem to be a close match.
Have you ever found out anything about him? I am also interested in knowing more.0
DeleteWatching Bright Road right now, wondering myself what happened to him, and a Google took me here. IMDB gives his birth year as 1941, which seems right. That would make this person ten years too young.
DeleteDon't think that's the same Philip Hepburn. Features don't look the same to me and the age doesn't match. Do the math. The obit says he was 67, meaning he would have been born around 1949. Bright Roads was released in 1953. He would have been around 4 years old when he made Bright Roads. I believe his character was quite a bit older than that.
DeleteCaught the last 20 minutes of Bright Road and was very impressed by Philip Hepburn. Found this. Unfortunately, there is no picture of him. https://www.playbill.com/personlistpage/person-list?production=00000150-aea3-d936-a7fd-eef771730004&type=op#oc
DeleteThanks for sharing this information!! If you want to know more information on latest child actors as well as all the details, then try this child actors list.
ReplyDeleteI too would very much like to know what became of young actor Philip Hepburn who starred in BRIGHT ROAD with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. He did such a fine job in that role, yet there is little written about him, at least that I can find...
ReplyDeleteI agree. I have been trying to find out. He was brilliant in Bright Road.
Deletehttp://www.tribune242.com/obituaries/2016/jul/29/philip-hepburn/
DeleteHe doesn't have any other film credits, but apparently made a few appearances on Broadway, up until 1960... http://www.playbill.com/person/philip-hepburn-vault-0000095940
Deletethe Blondie series of movies are currently being shown every Saturday at noon Central time on the free digital channel DECADES on channel 20.2 in the Houston, Texas area
ReplyDeleteI am watching Blondie on 2.2 Movies and was curious myself. I had heard Penny Singleton was considered type-cast after the Blondie movies. That brought me to here. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves tv trivia and where are the now?
ReplyDeleteGood blog you have got here.. It's difficult to find quality writing like yours these days.
ReplyDeleteI honestly appreciate individuals like you!
Take care!!
After seeing that sweet and beautiful film, I wondered about him too, so after looking him up a bit I found this info: Philip Hepburn was born in 1941 in Florida but grew up in New York. Hepburn debuted on Broadway in October 1949 with a small part in Marc Blitzstein's musical Regina. He was also seen in the revivals of James Matthew Barrie's Peter Pan (1950-51) and Marc Connelly's The Green Pastures (1951)Hepburn's last known stage appearance was in 1960, in Warren Miller and Robert Rossen's The Cool World. He retired from acting after that, passing the baton to other child actors such as Glynn Turman and Steven Perry, who in his wake will contribute to building a less stereotypical image of the African American child. Philip Hepburn was born in 1941 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Bright Road (1953), Studio One in Hollywood (1948) and The Big Story (1949).In 1953 he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in the film Bright Road, based on the short story "See How They Run" by Mary Elizabeth Vroman (1951). The film won the Christopher Award of that year. In the film, Hepburn offers an intense and realistic portrait of the life and problems of a young student in a segregated school in Alabama.In the following years, Hepburn continued his acting career on Broadway in other major theatrical productions, such as Truman Capote's House of Flowers (1954-55) and Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson (1956). In 1957, he made his only television appearance, as "Jeff", in "Bob Thomas of the Philadelphia Inquirer" episode of the TV series The Big Story. It doesn't mention his dying and according to this info he would be 80 yrs old now in 2021.
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