Tommy Dix, ‘Best Foot Forward’ Actor and Singer, Dies at 101
Known for the song “Buckle Down, Winsocki,” he graduated from a small part in the original Broadway musical to star alongside Lucille Ball in the 1943 film.
He was not on the list.
Tommy Dix, who starred as a young military school cadet opposite Lucille Ball in the 1943 MGM musical comedy Best Foot Forward after appearing in the Broadway original, has died. He was 101.
Dix, of Williamsburg, Virginia, died Jan. 15, his family announced. “He was, for those who knew him well, a living link with some of the great American personalities of the 20th century. He will be missed,” they said.
Dix was a popular baritone on network radio and had just made his Broadway debut in The Corn Is Green, starring Ethel Barrymore, when he was hired to play cadet Chuck Green in Best Foot Forward, directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Gene Kelly.
The Broadway musical, which bowed in October 1940 and ran for 326 performances, starred Rosemary Lane as Hollywood star Gale Joy, who accepts an out-of-the-blue invitation from Winsocki Military Academy student Bud Hooper (Gil Stratton) in Philadelphia to be his date at the junior prom.
Bud’s girlfriend, Helen (Maureen Cannon) is not happy, and she precipitates a brawl at a dance as Dix belts out the rousing fight song “Buckle Down, Winsocki.”
When MGM turned it into the film that featured Harry James and His Music Makers, Dix moved up to the Hooper role alongside other returning players June Allyson and Nancy Walker. Ball, playing herself, took Lane’s part, and Virginia Weidler portrayed Helen.
Dix got to perform “Buckle Down, Winsocki” again and take part in another song, “Three Men on a Date.”
In his review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther noted that Dix “is slightly over-pretty but very amusingly distraught as the hapless hero.”
Born in New York on Dec. 6, 1923, Thomas Paine Navard had serious health issues as he was raised by his single mom, Anna.
Inspired after seeing Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy perform “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life” in the 1935 film Naughty Marietta, he began singing in the neighborhood and became known as the “Boy Baritone of the Bowery.”
In the late 1930s, Dix performed on NBC and CBS radio shows including the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, which invited him back often, and he sang for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air when he was just 15.
He was awarded a four-year scholarship at the Manhattan High School of Music and Art and offered a fellowship at the Julliard School of Music.
In 1940, Dix performed his original composition “The March of Dimes,” which he dedicated to the charity, after which Sara Roosevelt, the mother of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, visited him backstage to offer her congratulations.
Also that year, he made it to Broadway — and sang in Welch — as a member of The Corn Is Green ensemble.
Dix entered the U.S. Army in 1943 and made appearances in uniform to help sell $3 million worth of war bonds in the U.S. south when an injury in training left him unable to serve in the field.
After World War II, he performed in nightclubs and hotels around the country and signed a deal with Coronet Records but soon had enough of show business. He accepted a job at his father-in-law’s lumberyard in Birmingham, Alabama, and eventually became vice president of the lumber company while earning an associate degree in architectural engineering from the University of Alabama.
Dix later was involved in real estate and construction in Joppatowne, Maryland, and Sarasota, Florida, before he retired in 1986.
Married four times (twice to the same woman), Dix is survived by his “sweetheart,” Catherine; his son, Grayson; a grandson; and several nieces, nephews and cousins.
Dix was born Thomas Paine Brittain Navard in New York City. He attended the High School of Music & Art that New York mayor Florello H. LaGuardia had established, and became a national sensation when he appeared on Major Bowes' Amateur Hour in 1936. After being chosen to sing "Buckle Down, Winsocki" in the 1941 Broadway musical "Best Foot Forward" he recorded the song with Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, and the 78 rpm record was a major hit.
MGM bought the film rights to "Best Foot Forward" and hired a number of the Broadway cast members to be in the movie. Tommy was one of them, but when they got to Hollywood it was decided to give Tommy the lead role so his character could sing the rousing fight song "Buckle Down, Winsocki" at the end of the movie. The final cost of making "Best Foot Forward" (one of only four Technicolor movies made by MGM that year) was $1,410,850. Gross box office receipts for the movie were $2,704,000.
Tommy entered the military in September 1943, but suffered medical problems when his childhood Celiac disease flared up again. He reluctantly accepted a medical discharge and became a successful nightclub performer for the rest of the 1940s. He married Margaret Ann "Maggie" Grayson in the summer of 1946 with whom he had two children (Grayson and Brittain).
In 1950, Tommy quit Show Business and went to work for his father-in-law who owned a successful construction & lumber business in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1959, after 13 years of marriage, Tommy and his wife divorced and Tommy went into the construction/real estate business in Florida where he was very successful.
Biography
IMDbPro
Tommy Dix(1923-2025)
Actor
Soundtrack
Tommy Dix in Best Foot Forward (1943)
Home Video Trailer from Warner Home Video
Play trailer1:42
Best Foot Forward (1943)
22
Tommy Dix was born Thomas Paine Brittain Navard in New York
City. He attended the High School of Music & Art that New York mayor
Florello H. LaGuardia had established, and became a national sensation when he
appeared on Major Bowes' Amateur Hour in 1936. After being chosen to sing
"Buckle Down, Winsocki" in the 1941 Broadway musical "Best Foot
Forward" he recorded the song with Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, and
the 78 rpm record was a major hit.MGM bought the film rights to "Best Foot
Forward" and hired a number of the Broadway cast members to be in the
movie. Tommy was one of them, but when they got to Hollywood it was decided to
give Tommy the lead role so his character could sing the rousing fight song
"Buckle Down, Winsocki" at the end of the movie. The final cost of
making "Best Foot Forward" (one of only four Technicolor movies made
by MGM that year) was $1,410,850. Gross box office receipts for the movie were
$2,704,000.Tommy entered the military in September 1943, but suffered medical
problems when his childhood Celiac disease flared up again. He reluctantly
accepted a medical discharge and became a successful nightclub performer for
the rest of the 1940s. He married Margaret Ann "Maggie" Grayson in
the summer of 1946 with whom he had two children (Grayson and Brittain).In
1950, Tommy quit Show Business and went to work for his father-in-law who owned
a successful construction & lumber business in Birmingham, Alabama. In
1959, after 13 years of marriage, Tommy and his wife divorced and Tommy went
into the construction/real estate business in Florida where he was very
successful.Tommy now lives in Virginia.
Born
December 6, 1923
Died
January 15, 2025(101)
Photos
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Known for
Lucille Ball and Harry James in Best Foot Forward (1943)
Best Foot Forward
6.4
Movie
Bud Hooper
1943
School House
6.4
TV Series
Soundtrack("Buckle Down Winsocki")
1949 • 1 ep
Lee Vines in We, the People (1948)
We, the People
7.2
TV Series
Self - Actor
1949 • 1 ep
Credits
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All credits
Actor
Mickey Rooney, Bonita Granville, Lee Wilde, and Lyn Wilde in
Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble (1944)
Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble
6.5
Mark (uncredited)
1944
Lucille Ball and Harry James in Best Foot Forward (1943)
Best Foot Forward
6.4
Bud Hooper
1943
Soundtrack
School House
6.4
TV Series
performer: "Buckle Down Winsocki"
1949
1 episode
Lucille Ball and Harry James in Best Foot Forward (1943)
Best Foot Forward
6.4
performer: "Buckle Down, Winsocki" (1941),
"Three Men on a Date" (1941)
194
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