Tom Fadden

Tom Fadden (January 6, 1895 – April 14, 1980) was an American actor. He performed on the legitimate stage, vaudeville, in films and on television during his long career. Early life Fadden was born in Bayard, Iowa, on January 6, 1895; his father was a mining engineer. Early in life the family moved farther west, moving from state to state, including the Dakotas, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Nebraska. In Nebraska Fadden graduated from Creighton University. Career After graduating from college, Fadden joined a theater company in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1915. He acted in stock companies and vaudeville during the 1910s and 1920s. In 1924 he made his Broadway debut, starring as Peter Jekyll in The Wonderful Visit. Over the next fifteen years he appeared in almost two dozen productions on the Great White Way, including Nocturne (1925), The Butter and Egg Man (1925–26), Elmer Gantry (1928), The Petrified Forest (1935) and Our Town (1938). During a revival of The Butter and Egg Man in London Fadden met and married his first wife, Genevieve Bartolocci. He made his film debut with a small role in 1939's I Stole a Million, which stars George Raft and Claire Trevor. His next film, Destry Rides Again, starred Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. His film career spanned almost forty years, and encompassed over 90 films, mostly in small or supporting roles, although with an occasional starring role, as in 1940's Zanzibar and the 1940 serial Winners of the West.