Hero of the Month: Tom Fadden
Tom Fadden was one of those great character actors who popped up continually in films and TV shows, did a bit part and got off. He spent over thirty years on the stage before coming to Hollywood, appearing in such productions of Nocturne and Our Town. Starting in 1939 he became a popular character actor in films like Destry Rides Again (1939), My Favorite Blonde (1942), Murder He Says (1945), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Empire of the Ants (1977). During the fifties and sixties Fadden became a familiar face on TV appearing on episodes of Adventures of Superman, Maverick, Perry Mason, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction.
In the early forties Fadden made two serials for Universal. Winners of the West (1940) cast Fadden as Dick Foran’s sidekick, helping him fight Indians and outlaws while building a railroad. Five years later, Fadden played a smelter foreman helping solve the murer of a gold miner in The Royal Mounted Rides Again (1945).
Most fans have their favorite Fadden performance. Mine is his idiosyncratic henchman sidekick to Ben Weldon in Humphrey Bogart’s The Big Sleep (1946).
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