Frankie Thomas (April 9, 1921 - May 11, 2006), also billed as Frank M. Thomas, Jr. and as Frankie Thomas, Jr., was a versatile actor who played both lead and supporting roles on Broadway, in films, in post-World War II radio, and in early television.
He was born in New York City to actors blank">Mona Bruns and Frank M. Thomas. He liked to say that his whole family was always in the acting business, including his uncle Calvin Thomas and wife.
Frankie was only 11 when he accompanied his mother to a casting office, where he stood in the background while his mother asked about possible openings in new Broadway shows. The agent replied, "I have nothing that suits you, Mona, but I can use the boy." Frankie wound up in a small part in Carry Nation (1932); in the cast was also a very young _Jimmy Stewart, as a constable.
He went on to appear in six other Broadway plays between 1932 and 1936, including Little Ol' Boy (with Burgess Meredith), Thunder on the Left, Wednesday's Child, The First Legion, Remember the Day (in which he appeared with his father), and Seen But Not Heard.
In Wednesday's Child he played the role of "Bobby Phillips," the longest stage part ever written for a child performer. Thomas also developed a life-long fascination with the character of Sherlock Holmes during this period, when he saw William Gillette perform the part during his "farewell tour".
When Wednesday's Child was filmed in 1934, Thomas and his parents travelled to Hollywood where both parents found character parts in films, while Thomas again essayed the role of Bobby Phillips for the cameras. The next year Thomas played the role of Nello Daas in the film version of Dog of Flanders, based on the famous Ouida novel. However, subsequently Thomas missed out on a couple of key juvenile starring roles, and eventually wound up in the serial Tim Tyler's Luck in 1937, based on the comic strip by Lyman Young. The role was a step down for Thomas, but, according to him in later years, one of the greatest experiences of his life, and the source of many of the stories he subsequently told with great gusto. He often said that for him, the serial was the equivalent of attending college, because he got to meet so many notable silent-film stars who were in the large cast, and hear long, detailed accounts of their careers. When not kept busy in Hollywood, Thomas had been returning to Broadway; the serial also marked the end of his Broadway appearances for five years.
Thomas's last "A" film was Boys' Town (1938) with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. Thomas was far down in the cast as Freddy Fuller, Boys' Town's mayor, and was not asked to appear in the sequel, Men of Boys' Town (1941). From then on until he left Hollywood in 1942, Thomas was confined to "B" films such as Little Tough Guys in Society and Nancy Drew, Detective (both 1938), Nancy Drew, Reporter, Code of the Streets, Nancy Drew, Troubleshooter, The Angels Wash Their Faces, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, On Dress Parade and Invisible Stripes (all 1939). In 1941 he appeared in small parts in Flying Cadets and One Foot in Heaven. His last film roles were again small parts in Always in My Heart and The Major and the Minor (1942) where he played a military school cadet who flirts with the character played by Ginger Rogers.
His last appearance on Broadway was in Your Loving Son which closed after two performances in April of 1941. He joined the US Navy in 1942 and was assigned to the United States Coast Guard, served as a Third Officer on patrol in the Atlantic, and was discharged in Philadelphia in 1944. After the war he and his parents lived in Manhattan and at first all three found work in the hundreds of radio daily and weekly series originating in the studios of the four major radio networks in New York. By 1948 all three Thomases were moving into early television broadcasting. In 1949 Thomas worked on two pioneering TV soap operas, A Woman to Remember and One Man's Family.
In the fall of 1950 he became the idol of millions of children when he took the part of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, beginning on CBS and transferring to ABC in January of 1951. The series continued its three-a-week 15-minute broadcasts until the spring of 1952. Kinescopes were rebroadcast on NBC in the summer of 1951, with live introductions by Thomas as Tom Corbett. During the spring of 1952 the TV cast of Tom Corbett also performed a two-a-week 30-minute broadcast on ABC radio. The next fall the TV series reappeared on DuMont alternating every Saturday with Secret Files of Captain Video for 30 minutes, going off the air again in May 1954. Thomas then took a role on another soap opera, First Love, but in December 1954, Tom Corbett blasted off again on NBC, running until June, 1955. By this time Tom's interplanetary rivals Captain Video and Commander Buzz Corry of Space Patrol had been off the air for several months. None of the three series were ever revived, although there was considerable talk of doing so in the Fall of 1957 in the aftermath of Sputnik.
Tom Corbett had the distinction of appearing on all four Golden-Age TV networks, and during the summer of 1951 actually running on two different networks simultaneously. Like the majority of child stars, Thomas never quite made the transition to adult roles. Despite the fact that Thomas was 34 years old at the end, the Tom Corbett character was supposedly a teenager attending Space Academy, training to become an officer of the Solar Guard.
In 1956, Thomas and his now-retired parents returned to California, where Thomas appeared in a few of the still-surviving radio series such as Suspense, and wrote soap-opera scripts. With characteristic energy, Thomas turned his hobby of bridge into a career, becoming editor of several bridge-related periodicals, and one-time president of the American Bridge Teachers' Association, as well as author of several books on bridge. In the late 1970s he also began to write and publish novels and short-story collections featuring Sherlock Holmes, a number of which are still in print.
Among the titles are:
During the last decade of his life he relished appearing as celebrity guest at conventions devoted to old-time radio, to the Golden Age of Hollywood, and to the Golden Age of Television. Particularly during the last five years of his life he often appeared at such gatherings wearing his original Tom Corbett dress uniform, into which he still fit quite well.
He died at a Sherman Oaks, California hospital of respiratory failure, following a stroke, aged 85. At his request, he was buried in his "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" costume, beside his parents, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.
This one-time wiry, curly-haired juvenile actor of 30s Depression era films grabbed major focus toward the end of his acting career as 50s space hero Tom Corbett on the smaller screen, then moved away from the limelight finally seeing his future in the cards. He was born Frank M. Thomas, Jr. on April 9, 1921, the only child of acting Manhattanites Frank M. Thomas and Mona Bruns. Well-established on the New York stage, his parents encouraged their young son into the business. The young actor first conquered Broadway in the early 30s appearing with Mildred Natwick and James Stewart (I) in "Carry Nation" (1932) at age 11. He made a few more Broadway appearances, including Little Ol' Boy (1933) and "Thunder on the Left" (1933) before tackling films, making his debut creating his stage role in Wednesday's Child (1934) as the teenage son of Karen Morley (I) and Edward Arnold (I). Both of his parents appeared in minor roles. Frankie went on to star in the sentimental tearjerker Dog of Flanders, A (1935), then headed the cast as the titular young hero searching for his father in Africa in Tim Tyler's Luck (1937). Although he was just one of the boys in MGM's Boys Town (1938) and just one of the Little Tough Guys (a branching off of the "Dead End Kids") in Little Tough Guys in Society (1938), he managed to grab a co-starring role and become a brief bobbysoxer crush playing Ted Nickerson, little Bonita Granville's dry-humored, sleuthing boyfriend, in the four-episode "Nancy Drew" mystery film series, which ran from 1938-1939. He played tough in such movies as Angels Wash Their Faces, The (1939) and a number of military cadet types in such films as On Dress Parade (1939), Flying Cadets (1941) and Major and the Minor, The (1942) before military duty itself called, signifying the abrupt end of a seemingly promising start as an adult film actor. He served with both the Navy and the Coast Guard during WWII. Upon his discharge, he moved to New York and found steady radio work (over 1500 programs) as well as parts on early TV daytime such as the 15-minute serial "Woman to Remember, A" (1949), which was the first five-times-a-week soaper to evolve. He received lasting fame and cult identification, however, the following year when he was cast in the title role of "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" (1950), as a cadet in training for the elite Solar Guard, 400 years in the future. An All-American hero to children nationwide, sci-fi was a huge rage at that time and he stayed with the show for five years. It was a 15-minute program that aired live three times a week. Following this peak of fame, Tom gave up acting altogether and wrote for radio and TV. He also produce the "Four Star Theater" for a time. Remaining a bachelor for much of his adult life, he lived a rather enviable Omar Sharif existence as a bridge master who taught recreational bridge while playing on the circuit with all the other master players. In addition to that, he continued to hone his writing talents as a mystery novelist. In the late 1980s, he met and married wife Virginia who had two children from a prior marriage. His wife died in 1997. Frankie passed away of respiratory failure in Sherman Oaks, California nine years later.
