Bobby Jordan

Acting

Bobby Jordan

Born 1923-04-01 · Harrison, New York, USA

Though he was the youngest, Jordan was the first of the boys who made up the Dead End Kids to work in films with a role in a 1933 Universal short. In 1935, he became one of the original Dead End Kids by winning the role of Angel in Sydney Kingsley's Broadway drama Dead End about life in the slums of the east side of New York City. The play was performed at the Belasco Theatre and ran for three years with over 600 performances. He appeared for the first season and the beginning of the second but left in mid-November 1936. He returned in time to join the others in 1937 in Hollywood, California to make the movie version of the play, starring big names such as Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, and Claire Trevor. Following the making of Dead End, Jordan found himself "released" from his contract at Goldwyn, and, subsequently, he appeared at Warner Brothers with the rest of the Dead End Kids. After one year, Warners released most of them, but kept Leo Gorcey and Jordan as solo performers. Jordan appeared (as "Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom") in Warner's Damon Runyon comedy A Slight Case of Murder (1938) and at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Young Tom Edison (1940). In 1940, Jordan appeared in the film Military Academy and accepted an offer from producer Sam Katzman to star in a new tough-kid series called "The East Side Kids." Leo Gorcey soon joined him, then Huntz Hall, and the trio continued to lead the series through 1943, when Jordan entered the United States Army during World War II as a foot soldier in the 97th Infantry Division. He was subsequently involved in an elevator accident, when the elevator fell five floors, that forced him to have surgery to remove his right kneecap.

Acting credits

Kid Millions poster
6.7

A musical comedy about a Brooklyn boy who inherits a fortune from his archaeologist father, but has to go to Egypt to claim it.

Kid Millions

1934

Angels with Dirty Faces poster
7.5

Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.

Angels with Dirty Faces

1938

Dead End poster
7.0

The lives of a young man and woman, an infamous gangster and a group of street kids converge one day in a volatile New York City slum.

Dead End

1937

On Dress Parade poster
6.6

The final feature in the "Dead End Kids" film series finds a youth trying to adjust to life at a military school.

On Dress Parade

1939

Junior Army poster
6.3

An English refugee and a street thug go to military school together.

Junior Army

1942

Young Tom Edison poster
5.9

Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Tom's only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.

Young Tom Edison

1940

Live Wires poster
5.6

Slip gets fired from his job at a construction company for decking his boss. His sister, who got him a job at the company, is angry with him. Slip manages to get a job with the District Attorney serving warrants, as does Sach. Through his job, Slip finds out that all is not quite kosher at his old construction company, and that his sister may be in danger.

Live Wires

1946

Destroyer poster
6.8

Flagwaving story of a new American destroyer, the JOHN PAUL JONES, from the day her keel is laid, to what was very nearly her last voyage. Among the crew, is Steve Boleslavski, a shipyard welder that helped build her, who reenlists, with his old rank of Chief bosuns mate. After failing her sea trials, she is assigned to the mail run, until caught up in a disparate battle with a Japanese sub. After getting torpedoed, and on the verge of sinking, the Captain, and crew hatch a plan to try and save the ship, and destroy the sub.

Destroyer

1943

Dust Be My Destiny poster
6.5

Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman's daughter leads to a fight between them, leading to the older man's death due to a weak heart. Joe and Mabel go on the run as he thinks no-one would believe a nobody like him.

Dust Be My Destiny

1939

A Slight Case of Murder poster
6.4

Former bootlegger Remy Marco has a slight problem with foreclosing bankers, a prospective son-in-law, and four hard-to-explain corpses.

A Slight Case of Murder

1938

They Made Me a Criminal poster
6.3

A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.

They Made Me a Criminal

1939

Spooks Run Wild poster
5.1

A group of delinquents on their way to summer camp get stuck in a haunted house.

Spooks Run Wild

1941

News Hounds poster
6.8

Slip and Sach are working for a local newspaper as a reporter and photographer, respectively. Slip wants to get the goods on a local gambling ring that is fixing sporting events, so he and Sach go undercover to expose the ring.

News Hounds

1947

Bowery Buckaroos poster
6.6

The Bowery Boys head west to clear Louie of an old murder charge that he had killed his gold-mine partner. Sach has the map to the gold mine painted on his back, and Blackjack McCoy has him kidnapped by Indian Joe. Gabe poses as a dangerous gunman, the Klondike Kid, while Slip is in charge of all the remaining loose ends.

Bowery Buckaroos

1947

The Matchmaking Marshal poster
8.0

Two episodes of the TV series "Wild Bill Hickok" edited together and released as a feature.

The Matchmaking Marshal

1955

Hell's Kitchen poster
6.8

A paroled convict's efforts to improve conditions at a boys' reform school alarm the school's corrupt warden, who has been embezzling funds from the institution. He hatches a plan to derail the reformed convict's efforts and have him sent back to prison, and part of that scheme involves cracking down hard on the reform school's inmates.

Hell's Kitchen

1939

Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook poster
9.5

A history of the famous vampire of books and movies, using film clips, previews and other methods.

Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook

1991

The Beginning or the End poster
6.4

The research, development, and deployment of the first atomic bomb, as well as the bombing of Hiroshima, are detailed in this docudrama.

The Beginning or the End

1947

That Gang of Mine poster
5.8

A street kid has dreams of becoming a jockey. He gets his chance when he and his gang discover a poor old man who has a championship race horse. The man agrees to let the boy ride his horse in a race, but first the gang must get enough money to pay for the race's entry fees.

That Gang of Mine

1940

Treasure of Monte Cristo poster
5.2

A San Francisco lawyer uses a woman to lure a merchant seaman worth a legendary fortune.

Treasure of Monte Cristo

1949

Mr. Wise Guy poster
6.6

The gang is sent to the Wilton Reform School after they are unjustly convicted of stealing a truck. Bill Collins, brother of co-leader Danny, becomes involved in a killing and, while also innocent, is convicted and sentenced to death. Through a series of events, Muggs, Glimpy, Danny and the rest of the gang, learn that Knobby, a henchman of Luke Manning, knows something about the murder.

Mr. Wise Guy

1942

Swingtime in the Movies poster
6.0

In this musical short, a waitress at the Warner Bros. commissary gets her big break.

Swingtime in the Movies

1938

Crime School poster
6.4

In the slums, teenager Frankie Warren hangs out with a rowdy gang who one day knock him out in a fight. In court, the boys refuse to reveal who struck the knockout blow, and all are subsequently sentenced to a reformatory, cruelly run by two corrupt guards. New deputy commissioner Mark Braden arrives determined to change things, but despite the help of Frankie's sister, Mark's reform plans -- and Frankie's future -- may be sabotaged from within.

Crime School

1938

Angels Wash Their Faces poster
6.7

A young man just released from a reformatory moves to a new neighborhood with his sister, intending to start a new life. However, he gets mixed up with the local mob boss and corrupt politicians and soon finds himself being framed for an arson and murder he didn't commit.

Angels Wash Their Faces

1939