Tom Fadden

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.[1]

After graduating from college, Fadden joined a theater company in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1915.[2] 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.[3] 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).[4] During a revival of The Butter and Egg Man in London Fadden met and married his first wife, Genevieve Bartolocci.[1]

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.[5] 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[6][7] and the 1940 serial Winners of the West.

In the 1940s he appeared in other films such as the Bob Hope comedy, My Favorite Blonde (1942);[8] Pardon My Sarong (1942), starring Abbott and Costello;[9] The Naughty Nineties (1945), again starring Abbott and Costello;[10] the film noir, The Big Sleep (1946), starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall;[11] and director Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), where Fadden portrayed the tollhouse keeper on the bridge, who reacts to Clarence's (the angel) explanation of who he is to George Bailey (James Stewart).[2][12] Capra remembered Fadden's work and cast him among many of Capra's old cronies for the 1961 Damon Runyon comedy Pocketful of Miracles (1961).

Tom Fadden bore more than a passing resemblance to familiar character player Irving Bacon, and in time they both wound up playing similar mild-mannered roles. In the 1950s, Fadden appeared in Dallas (1950), starring Gary Cooper and Ruth Roman;[13] 1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where his character is one of the first victims to succumb to the alien invaders;[2][14] and Baby Face Nelson (1957), starring Mickey Rooney and Carolyn Jones.[15]

Fadden was also an early arrival on television. One of his first TV roles was that of Eben Kent, the earthman who adopts Kal-El on the inaugural episode of The Adventures of Superman.[1] He appeared in other television shows during the decade, including recurring roles on Broken Arrow (1956–58) and Cimarron City (1958–59).[16] Although he appeared in few films in the 1960s, he worked regularly on television during the decade, including a recurring role on Petticoat Junction.[1] His final acting credit was the 1977 science fiction horror film, Empire of the Ants, starring Joan Collins.[16]

Fadden died of natural causes on April 14, 1980, in Vero Beach, Florida,[17] and was survived by his second wife, Jane.[1]

(Per AFI database)[6]

• Tom Fadden at IMDb
• Tom Fadden at the Internet Broadway Database