Bernard Punsly

Bernard Punsly (July 11, 1923 – January 20, 2004) was an American actor and physician born in New York City, the son of a tailor. He is remembered as the last surviving member of the Dead End Kids.

Punsly began his acting career at age eight, making his Broadway debut in I Love an Actress. He subsequently appeared on Broadway from 1931 to 1935, with his most significant stage credit being the role of Milty in Dead End, Sidney Kingsley's play about youth and poverty in New York City.

The Broadway production of Dead End brought Punsly and several of his fellow child actors to Hollywood, where they reprised their roles in the 1937 film adaptation. Punsly again portrayed Milty in the film, which framed its young characters as products of a damaging social environment. That same year he appeared in The Big Broadcast of 1938, playing a caddy opposite W.C. Fields. He went on to appear in Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), Little Tough Guy (1938), Hell's Kitchen (1939), and the Little Tough Guys series, accumulating a total of more than eighteen film appearances. His screen work brought him into productions alongside James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan, Pat O'Brien, and John Garfield. The Los Angeles Times noted at his death that Punsly frequently played the innocent youth drawn into the gang, and that he was regarded off-camera as the group's well-behaved member.

Punsly ended his acting career following Mug Town (1942), at which point other members of the series continued on as the Bowery Boys. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943 and received medical training while serving in the Army Air Forces. After his discharge, he enrolled at the Medical College of Georgia at the University of Georgia, earning his medical degree in 1949. He completed an internship and residency at Los Angeles County Medical Center before establishing himself as an internist at Little Company of Mary Hospital. In 1971 he became chief of staff at South Bay Hospital in Redondo Beach, a position that reflected his standing in the medical community. He retired from medicine in 2002.

In 1994, Punsly joined fellow Dead End Kids survivor Huntz Hall when the group was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hall died in 1999, leaving Punsly as the last surviving member of the original ensemble.

Punsly married Marilyn "Lynne" Kufferman in 1950 and lived for many years in Palos Verdes Estates, California. He died of cancer on January 20, 2004, in Torrance, California, at the age of 80. He was survived by his wife, a son, two grandchildren, and a sister.