- Born
- Died
- Prolific Irish character actor Thomas J. Dugan was born in Dublin on New Year's Day 1889. At a young age, his family moved to Philadelphia, where Dugan attended high school. He had a good tenor voice so, after leaving school, he decided to pursue a career in show business. Before appearing on stage, Dugan performed in minstrel and traveling medicine shows that were popular at the time. He played in musical comedies in New York City and vaudeville theaters such as Earl Carroll's Vanities before eventually becoming a comedian on Broadway.
Dugan began his acting career in 1927 with roles in some obscure silent movies. He was lucky enough to be cast in Lights of New York (1928), the very first feature film with all synchronous dialogue (The Jazz Singer (1927) was the first movie to use audible dialogue, but it still used title cards). His best-known films are Ernst Lubitsch's satirical World War II comedy To Be or Not to Be (1942) and the Gene Kelly/Frank Sinatra/Esther Williams musical Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949).
Over the years, Dugan appeared in more than 260 films, appearing on silver screens frequently until a road accident in California took his life on March 7, 1955. He was 66 years old at the time of his death.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous
- SpouseMarie Raymond(1925 - March 7, 1955) (his death)
- He was among the lucky actors chosen for the first all-talking feature film, Lights of New York.(1928)
- In the mid '30s, Dugan briefly signed on at Hal Roach studios as an actor and gag writer.
- Raspy-voiced character actor. When not impersonating Hitler (most famously as ham actor Bronsky in To Be or Not to Be (1942)), he was most often seen as Irish cops or cab drivers.
- Son of Mary Doran and Thomas Dugan.
- Appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities on stage in New York.
- "If you want to have a friend, be one".
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