TOMMY 'BUTCH' BOND BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Tommy 'Butch' Bond was born on September 16th, 1926 in Dallas, Texas with the birth name Thomas Ross Bond. He was discovered when he was only five years old walking the streets of Dallas with his mother by Hal Roach. He was asked to travel to Hollywood to audition and it was worth the long car ride as he was chosen and cast in the short, "Spanky" (1932). He remained working on the "Our Gang" series for two years.
When his contract ended in 1934 he found more work on the film, "Washee Ironee" and then got a number of more roles in unbilled and minor roles. When he was working on another small film a couple years later, Hal Roach took notice of him again and cast him in, "Glove Taps" (1937). As he began to become a teenage boy roles were much harder to come by and he took whatever he could get in the industry.
Some of his later work was on, "Man From Frisco" (1944), "The Beautiful Cheat" (1945), "Big Town Scandal" (1948), "Superman" (1948) and "Atom Man vs. Superman" (1950). As film roles were really not coming to him, he turned his efforts towards television. He also decided to pursue a college degree from Los Angeles City College and earned a degree in the theater arts from Cal State Los Angeles.
Staying in the entertainment industry he was hired at KTTV-TV in Los Angeles and worked as a stage manager and assistant director at KFSN-TV in Fresno for about twenty years. Tommy did make one return to television in 1970 to co host the, "Little Rascals Theater" Ttelevision series.
He finally retired in 1991 and was able to avoid the troubled life that many child actors suffered from coming out of the era of the 50's. Butch passed away at the age of seventy nine on September 24th, 2005 in Northridge, California from heart disease. He was survived by his only wife, Polly Bond whom he married in 1953 and had one son, Thomas R. Bond II who is a producer and President/CEO of the family corporation, the American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.
Filmography
2004 Bob's Night Out
1971 The Love Machine
1951 Bedtime for Bonzo
1951 Call Me Mister
1950 Hot Rod
1950 Atom Man vs. Superman
1949 Battleground
1949 Tokyo Joe
1949 Any Number Can Play
1949 The Lucky Stiff
1948 Superman
1948 Big Town Scandal
1947 Gas House Kids in Hollywood
1947 Gas House Kids Go West
1945 The Beautiful Cheat
1945 Twice Blessed
1944 Man from Frisco
1943 This Land Is Mine
1941 A Quiet Fourth
1941 New York Town
1941 Adventure in Washington
1940 A Little Bit of Heaven
1940 Five Little Peppers in Trouble
1940 Out West with the Peppers
1940 Bubbling Troubles
1940 Five Little Peppers at Home
1939 Let's Talk Turkey
1939 Fast and Furious
1939 Static in the Attic
1939 Captain Spanky's Show Boat
1939 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
1939 Auto Antics
1939 Dog Daze
1939 Now It Can Be Sold
1939 Cousin Wilbur
1939 Happily Buried
1939 Duel Personalities
1938 Practical Jokers
1938 Football Romeo
1938 Party Fever
1938 Block-Heads
1938 The Little Ranger
1938 City Streets
1938 The Magician's Daughter
1938 Came the Brawn
1937 Rosalie
1937 I Wanna Be a Sailor
1937 Framing Youth
1937 Fishy Tales
1937 Hideaway
1937 Married Before Breakfast
1937 Rushin' Ballet
1937 Glove Taps
1937 Champagne Waltz
1937 Knee Action
1936 Don't Look Now
1936 Libeled Lady
1936 I Love to Singa
1936 Mister Smarty
1936 The Final Hour
1936 Page Miss Glory
1936 Counterfeit
1936 Silly Billies
1936 The Phantom Ship
1936 The Return of Jimmy Valentine
1936 Next Time We Love
1936 Unrelated Relations
1935 The Calling of Dan Matthews
1935 Hollywood Capers
1935 Oh, My Nerves
1935 Gobs of Trouble
1935 Alimony Aches
1935 The Marriage Bargain
1934 Kid Millions
1934 You Said a Hatful!
1934 Washee Ironee
1934 Mike Fright
1934 Honky Donkey
1934 I'll Take Vanilla
1934 The First Round-Up
1934 For Pete's Sake!
1934 Hi' Neighbor!
1934 The Cracked Iceman
1933 The Mystery Squadron
1933 Wild Poses
1933 Beauty and the Bus
1933 Bedtime Worries
1933 Mush and Milk
1933 The Kid from Borneo
1933 Forgotten Babies
1932 Spanky
