Tommy Kelly obit

Tommy Kelly, Adventures of Tom Sawyer Child Star, Dead at 90

He was not on the list.

Tommy Kelly, who played the titular boy hero in the 1938 movie The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, has died. He was 90.

Kelly suffered congestive heart failure on Jan. 25 in Greensboro, N.C., his son announced Tuesday.

Along with the adaptation of the Mark Twain novel for which he's best known, Kelly appeared in Gone With the Wind, He Walked By Night, and The West Point Story before retiring from Hollywood at age 25.

Kelly was a veteran of World War II, serving in the Army in Europe. He had a distinguished post-Hollywood career, working as an administrator for the Peace Corps in the African nation of Liberia and as an international relations advisor for the Department of Agriculture.

Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Susie; his children Ann, Matt, Eileen, Kevin, Mark and Paul; 12 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

His filmography:

Year       Title       Role       Notes    ref

1938      The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Tom Sawyer      

    Directed by Norman Taurog.

    Screenplay by John V. A. Weaver.

    Based on the classic 1876 novel by Mark Twain.

Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus    Bill Peck              

    American comedy film directed by Edward F. Cline.

    Based on the book of the same name by George W. Peck.

               

1939      They Shall Have Music    Willie     Musical film directed by Archie Mayo.    

Gone with the Wind        Boy in band       

    American epic-historical romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name.

    Directed by Victor Fleming.

    Screenplay by Sidney Howard

1940      Curtain Call         Fred "Freddy" Middleton              Comedy film directed by Frank Woodruff.

Irene     Michael               

    American musical film produced and directed by Herbert Wilcox.

    Screenplay by Alice Duer Miller is based on the book of the 1919 stage musical of the same name by James Montgomery, who had adapted it from his play Irene O'Dare.

Military Academy             Tommy Lewis    

    American drama film directed by D. Ross Lederman.

    Screenplay by Karl Brown and David Silverstein from a story by Richard English.             

Gallant Sons       Harwood "Woody" Hollister       

    American mystery film directed by George B. Seitz.

    Screenplay by William R. Lipman and Marion Parsonnet.

               

1941      Nice Girl?             Ken Atkins           American musical film directed by William A. Seiter.         

Double Date       Hodges

    Directed by Glenn Tryon.

    Screenplay by Scott Darling (Credited as W. Scott Darling), Erna Lazarus, and Agnes Christine Johnston.              

Life Begins for Andy Hardy           Chuck Curss       

    American family comedy film directed by George B. Seitz.

    Screenplay by Agnes Christine Johnston and Aurania Rouverol.

    The 11th installment of the 16 popular Andy Hardy films starring Mickey Rooney.

    The last Andy Hardy film to feature Judy Garland.

               

1942      Mug Town           Steve     Directed by Ray Taylor.

1947      The Beginning or the End              Mack    

    American docudrama film directed by Norman Taurog.

    The film dramatizes the creation of the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project and the bombing of Hiroshima.

The Fabulous Texan        Lee Kilrain          

    American western film directed by Edward Ludwig.

    Screenplay by Lawrence Hazard and Horace McCoy.

1948      He Walked by Night        Young hoodlum aka Redhead    

    Police procedural film noir directed by Alfred L. Werker and Anthony Mann.

    Shot in semidocumentary tone, was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, a former Glendale, California police department employee and World War II veteran who unleashed a crime spree of burglaries, robberies, and shootouts in the Los Angeles area during 1945 and 1946.

1949      Adventure in Baltimore Student                Drama directed by Richard Wallace.        

Battleground      Casualty               American war film that follows a company in the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division as they cope with the Siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.    

1950      The West Point Story      Cadet   

    Also known as Fine and Dandy.

    Musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth.

The Magnificent Yankee                Secretary             American biographical film adapted by Emmet Lavery from his play of the same title, which was in turn adapted from the book Mr. Justice Holmes by Francis Biddle.