Bernard Gorcey

Bernard Gorcey, born Baruch Ugorsky on January 9, 1886, in Kovno, Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania), was an American actor whose career spanned vaudeville, Broadway, radio, and film. His father, Abraham Ugorsky, a tailor by trade, emigrated to New York in March 1888, and the remainder of the family, including the young Bernard, followed three years later when he was five years old. The family eventually relocated to Long Branch, New Jersey in the 1900s, at which point they adopted the surname Gorcey. His mother, Leah, died in 1915. Gorcey stood 4 feet 10 inches tall as an adult.

Gorcey began his performing career in vaudeville before transitioning to Broadway, where he worked steadily from 1907 to 1937. Early in his stage career he gravitated toward comedy roles. His Broadway credits included Tom Jones (1912), What Ails You? (1918), Somebody's Sweetheart (1920), in which he played a character billed as A Mysterious Conspirator, and Always You (1922), where he appeared as Isaac Cohen. In 1923 he joined the cast of Abie's Irish Rose, which became the most successful production of his theatrical career. Subsequent stage work included Wildflower (1925) as Gaston La Roche, Song of the Flame (1925) as Count Boris, Cherry Blossoms (1930) as George Washington Goto, Pressing Business (1931), Joy of Living (1931), and Wonder Boy (1932), in which he portrayed Commodore Cohen. His final Broadway credits were Keeping Expenses Down (1935), where he played Kent J. Goldstein, Creeping Fire (1935) as Mr. Goodman, and Satellite (1937) as Max Goldblatz.

At the age of 42, Gorcey began working in film, and between 1928 and 1955 he appeared in 67 movies, taking on minor roles at both Monogram Pictures and Warner Bros. He also performed radio work on the Popeye Show. Among his film appearances was a role as Mr. Mann, a meek Jewish neighbor of the central character, in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940). Forty-four of his film appearances came alongside his sons Leo Gorcey and David Gorcey, first in The East Side Kids series and then in Monogram's The Bowery Boys series. From 1946 to 1955, the Bowery Boys produced between four and five films per year, with Gorcey recurring as Louie Dumbrowski, the proprietor of a sweet shop where the Bowery Boys congregated, typically helping themselves to free sodas while scheming, to Dumbrowski's repeated displeasure.

In 1914, Gorcey married Josephine Condon, born in 1897 in Wales, with whom he had three sons, Fred, Leo, and David, and a daughter, Audrey. On August 31, 1955, he was involved in a collision between his car and a bus at the intersection of 4th Street and La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. He died from his injuries on September 11, 1955.