Billy Halop(1920-1976)
- Actor
Billy Halop's show business career started on radio in the 1920s and
carried over to stage work on Broadway. There, in 1937, he and other
teenage cast members of the stage hit "Dead End" were brought to
Hollywood by Samuel Goldwyn for the film
version of the play, which was a tremendous hit. Halop and some of the
other teenage cast members went on to do a series of films at Universal
as the Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys while some of the others worked
at Monogram in a series as the East Side Kids. Halop left the group in
the early 1940s to seek a career on his own, but could only land parts
in B pictures. His career was also hampered by a long string of marital
and financial problems and a lifelong struggle against alcoholism.
Toward the end of his career, he had a recurring role as Munson, the
owner of the cab company where Archie Bunker worked part time, in
All in the Family (1971).
His last years were spent making a living as a male nurse.
