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Some report Billy as being born May 11,
1920, but it was actually February 11. In his military records, his death certificate, his drivers lisence and SAG card all
support the February 11th date, so I'm quite comfortable with using this one. He was born in the burough of Brooklyn in the
state of New York to a lawyer and a dancer. The older brother of Florence - the actress with the distinctive voice in television
in such shows as "I love Lucy", "That Girl" and most famously as Bailiff Florence Kleiner in "Night Court"
- and Joel. Billy started out in radio and then the stage. His first movie was the film version of one of his plays, "Dead
End" in 1937. He made a few more films as the leader of the "Dead End Kids" - the group of actors known from the film and
carrying the name on through the beginnings of their careers. The Dead End Kids split off into "Little Tough Guys" when Billy
decided that he was tired of battling Leo Gorcey for the role of gang leader. However, when Sydney Kingsley decided that the
title "Dead End Kids" was his property and he didn't want the boys using it, Gorcey and gang moved on to "East Side Kids",
while "Little Tough Guys" didn't fare as well. Leo and company went on to do many East Side Kids films, while our hero Billy
went to war to protect and to defend our beloved stars and stripes. Gorcey may have got a leg up in film history, but it are
the silent heroes we should admire...Now, back on subject, when Billy got back from the war, having served in the Signal Corps
of the United States Army for three years, he found himself out of place in Hollywood. He was older now and had been out of
the loop for too long. He finally manged a film with sexy blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe in 1946 "DangerousYears", but nothing
again for some time. He did anything he could on screen from this point until he managed a recurring role as "Bert Munson"
on television's "All in the family". Carroll O'Connor, lovable curmudgeon Archie Bunker, had been a huge fan of the Dead End
Kids and, finding out that Halop was vitually out of work, O'Connor snapped him up. Unfortunately, Billy Halop was suffering
severely from alcholism at this point and wasn't well enough to work on a steady basis, anyhow. Billy died in his sleep of
a coronary thrombosis (a massive heart attack for the medically unwashed) in his sleep, November 9th, 1976, at the tender
age of 56. Sadly, Hollywood had a reputation of not hiring anyone with problems and we were pretty much cheated out of a lot
of great work that Billy could have given us. There were no treatment centers for alcoholics or drug abusers, then. Had there
been, who knows? In any case, a great actor was taken from us far too soon and h will always be missed by his continuing generation
of fans. God Bless you, Billy...where ever you are.
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