Jerry Tucker(1925-2016)
- Actor
As a youngster, his cute round face and red hair made him popular in his neighborhood. A Paramount film executive suggested he could have a film career, so his family moved to Hollywood, where, in 1929, he became the youngest actor ever put under contract at the age of four (to Paramount). Soon after, he was given the stage name of Jerry Tucker and immediately became famous at the studio for his ability to recite his lines from memory. He appeared in Our Gang films until 1937, when his final appearance was in Glove Taps. In 1934, he was one of the Our Gang kids to appear with Laurel and Hardy in 'Babes in Toyland'. Outside of the Gang films, he worked with Buster Keaton in 'Sidewalks of New York', Clark Gable in 'San Francisco' and Shirley Temple in 'Captain January'. In 1939, he and his mother moved to New York where he auditioned for a number of radio programs. In 1942, he joined the navy and was wounded when a Japanese kamikaze plane hit the destroyer on which he was serving, the U.S.S. Sigsbee. In 1944, he married Myra Heino and had two daughters, Karen Beth and Renee Eve. After the war, he studied electrical engineering at college and was employed as an engineer for RCA Global Communications, retiring in 1981 and living on Long Island, New York.
