Background
Halop came from a theatrical family. His mother was a dancer, and his sister, Florence Halop, was an actress who worked on radio and in television From 1934 to 1937, he starred in one of his first radio series, playing Dick Kent, the son of Fred and Lucy Kent, in "Home Sweet Home.".
Career
In 1933, he was given the lead, Bobby Benson, in the popular new radio show "The H-Bar-O Rangers," an early cr of Don Knotts as well. After several years as a radio juvenile, he was cast as Tommy Gordon in the 1935 Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley"s Dead End and traveled to Hollywood with the rest of the Dead End Kids when Samuel Goldwyn produced a film version of the play in 1937. Usually called Tommy in the films, he had the recurring role of a gang leader in a series of films that featured the Dead End Kids, later billed Little Tough Guys.
In his later years, he claimed that he was paid more than the other Dead End actors, which had contributed to bad feelings in the group, and that he was tired of the name "Dead End Kids." He also played the bully Flashman, speaking with an English accent, in the 1940 film Tom Brown"s School Days opposite Cedric Hardwicke and Freddie Bartholomew.
After serving in World World War II, he found that he had grown too old to be effective in the roles that had brought him fame. At one point, he was reduced to starring in a cheap East Side Kids imitation at Provider Reimbursement Consultants studios.
Diminishing film work, marital difficulties, and a drinking problem eventually ate away at his show business career. Late in life, Halop supplemented his nursing income with film and television roles, including the recurring role of Bert Munson on All in the Family.
Halop died on November 9, 1976 at the age of 56 from a heart attack and is interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.