Eddie Jr. Foy
Eddie Jr. Foy
American entertainer Eddie Foy Jr. was a performer since childhood. He was one of the "Seven Little Foys" vaudeville act, organized -- in a sense -- by his father, legendary soft-shoe comedian Eddie Foy Sr. Virtually a dead ringer for his famous dad, Eddie Jr. accepted an offer from Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld to strike out on his own in 1929, making his screen debut in the early '30s in short-subject comedies. Eddie's brother Bryan Foy was by then in charge of the B-picture unit of Warner Bros. pictures, and in true Hollywood-nepotist fashion lined up several supporting movie roles for Eddie and another brother, Charley Foy. Eddie's most significant work in the years 1939-1945 occurred when he was tapped to play his father in historical films; he recreated a true incident from Eddie Sr.'s barnstorming days in Frontier Marshal (1939), engaged in a duel of wits with George M. Cohan (James Cagney) in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and entertained a U.S. president with a rendition of "On Moonlight Bay" in Wilson (1944). It wasn't easy to wrest himself from the spectre of his famous father, but Eddie Foy Jr. built up a strong reputation as a musical comedy star in his own right. He scored a hit as a mercurial pajama-factory foreman in the 1954 Broadway production The Pajama Game, recreating the role for the 1957 film version. An atypical movie assignment came about in 1960, when the very Irish Foy was cast as a German bookie in Bells Are Ringing. A frequent TV guest star, Foy headlined the first hour-long situation comedy, Fair Exchange, in 1962; unfortunately the program died in less than a year. A later attempt at a series was shown as a 1967 one-shot on The Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. Eddie starred, once again, as his father in The Seven Little Foys, the TV version of Foy Sr.'s filmed life story, which had starred Bob Hope in 1955. Despite Eddie Jr.'s inspired hoofing, a guest spot by Mickey Rooney as George M. Cohan, and the presence of the Osmond family as the Foys, this 60-minute pilot film didn't jell and failed to make the series grade. Always popular in England, Eddie Foy Jr. made his last film appearance in the British comedy 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1967) -- starring, written, and scored by Foy fan Dudley Moore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmography of Eddie Jr. Foy:
- The Pajama Game with Doris Day , Reta Shaw
- Lucky Me with Doris Day , Robert Cummings , Phil Silvers , Martha Hyer , Bill Goodwin , Marcel Dalio , Hayden Rorke , Angie Dickinson , Percy Helton , Ray Teal , Herb Vigran
- Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney , Joan Leslie , Walter Huston , Richard Whorf , Jeanne Cagney , George Tobias , Rosemary DeCamp , Frances Langford , George Barbier , S.Z. Sakall , Walter Catlett , Minor Watson , Ann Doran , Frank Faylen , James Flavin , William Forrest , Creighton Hale , John Hamilton , William Hopper , Ruth Robinson , Michael Curtiz , Tom Dugan
- Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood with Bruce Dern , Madeline Kahn , Art Carney , Phil Silvers , Ron Leibman , Teri Garr , Edward Ashley , Billy Barty , William Benedict , Edgar Bergen , Janet Blair , Joan Blondell , John Carradine , Jack Carter , Cyd Charisse , Jackie Coogan , Broderick Crawford , Yvonne DeCarlo , Gloria DeHaven , William Demarest , Andy Devine , Alice Faye , Fritz Feld , Stepin Fetchit , Rhonda Fleming , Shecky Greene , Huntz Hall , Dick Haymes , Sterling Holloway , Dorothy Lamour , Peter Lawford , Keye Luke , Guy Madison , Victor Mature , Virginia Mayo , Mike Mazurki , Ethel Merman , Ann Miller , Ricardo Montalban , Dennis Morgan , Patricia Morison , Louis Nye , Walter Pidgeon , Aldo Ray , Ann Rutherford , Dean Stockwell , Regis Toomey , Rudy Vallee , Doodles Weaver , Jesse White , Henny Youngman , Milton Berle , Rory Calhoun , Tab Hunter , George Jessel , Fernando Lamas , Ken Murray , Henry Wilcoxon
Eddie Jr. Foy Trivia
