- Johnny Sheffield
Johnny Sheffield (born
April 11 ,1931 ) is an American formerchild actor .He was born Jon Matthew Sheffield Cassan in
Pasadena, California , the second child ofactor Reginald Sheffield (February 18 ,1901 -December 8 ,1957 ) and Louise Van Loon (January 21 ,1905 -April 14 ,1987 ). His older sister was Mary Alice Sheffield Cassan and his younger brother was William Hart Sheffield Cassan (actor Billy Sheffield).His father was himself a former juvenile performer when he came to the
United States from his nativeEngland . His mother, a native ofNew York , was aVassar College graduate with a liberal arts education who loved books and lectured widely.Johnny was said to have been sickly and frail as a small child, but his father saw to it that he have a daily regimen of
exercise . Not only did his health improve, he became strong and physically fit. His father also encouraged him in an actingcareer .In 1938, Sheffield became a child star when he was cast in the juvenile lead of a West Coast production of the highly successful Broadway play "On Borrowed Time", which starred Dudley Digges and featured
Victor Moore as Gramps. Sheffield played the role of Pud, a long role for a child. He later went to New York as a replacement and performed the role on Broadway.The following year, his father read an article in the "
Hollywood Reporter " that asked, "Have you a Tarzan Jr. in your backyard?" He believed he did and set up an interview.MGM was searching for a suitable youngster to play the adopted son of
Tarzan in its next jungle movie with starsJohnny Weissmuller andMaureen O'Sullivan . Sheffield was taken to an audition and was extremely fortunate, as Weissmuller personally chose him out of all the other juvenile actors to play the part of "Boy" in "Tarzan Finds a Son" (1939).In that same year, Sheffield appeared in the
Busby Berkely movie musical "Babes in Arms " withMickey Rooney andJudy Garland , classmates of his at the studio school.He appeared with many other performers over the years, including
Jeanette MacDonald , Pat O'Brien,Cesar Romero ,Ronald Reagan andBeverly Garland .Sheffield played Boy in three Tarzan movies at MGM, and in another five after the star, Weissmuller, and production of the movie series moved to
RKO . The blonde actress Brenda Joyce played Jane in the last three Tarzan movies Sheffield appeared in.After he outgrew the role of Boy, the teenage Sheffield went on to star in his own jungle movie series. In 1949, he made "
Bomba the Jungle Boy " with co-starPeggy Ann Garner . In all, he appeared as Bomba twelve times.Sheffield appeared in his last movie, as Bomba, in 1955. He then made a pilot for a
television series, "Bantu the Zebra Boy ", which was created, produced and directed by his father,Reginald Sheffield . Although the production values were high compared to other TV jungle shows of the day, a sponsor was not found and the show was never produced as a weekly series.Sheffield decided to leave the industry and enrolled in
college to further hiseducation . He lived and worked for a time inArizona .He married a woman named Patricia in 1959 in
Yuma, Arizona . He and Patty have three children: Patrick M. Sheffield, Stewart Sheffield and Regina L. Sheffield.After leaving
show business , Sheffield completed abusiness degree atUCLA . Turning his attention to other fields, he involved himself variously infarming ,real estate andconstruction . For a time, he was a representative for the Santa Monica Seafood Company importing lobsters fromBaja California inMexico . He has also written articles of his movie reminiscences and sold copies of the TV pilot "Bantu, the Zebra Boy" on video.Johnny Sheffield lives in
Southern California .Filmography
*"
Tarzan Finds a Son! " (1939) (MGM) ... Boy
*"Babes in Arms " (1939) (MGM) ... Bobs
*"Lucky Cisco Kid " (1940) (20th Century Fox ) ... Tommy Lawrence
*"Knute Rockne, All American " (1940) (Warner Bros.) ... Knute at 7
*"Little Orvie " (1940) (RKO) ... Orvie Stone
*"Tarzan's Secret Treasure " (1941) (MGM) ... Boy
*"Million Dollar Baby" (1941) (Warner Bros.) ... Alvie Grayson
*"Tarzan's New York Adventure " (1942) (MGM) ... Boy
*"Tarzan Triumphs " (1943) (RKO Pathé) ... Boy
*"Tarzan's Desert Mystery " (1943) (RKO Pathé) ... Boy
*"Roughly Speaking" (1945) (Warner Bros.) ... Frankie at 9
*"Tarzan and the Amazons " (1945) (RKO Pathé) ... Boy
*"Tarzan and the Leopard Woman " (1946) (RKO Pathé) ... Boy
*"Tarzan and Huntress " (1947) (RKO Pathé) ... Boy
*"Bomba the Jungle Boy " (1949) (Monogram) ... Bomba
*"Bomba on Panther Island " (1949) (Monogram) ... Bomba
*"The Lost Volcano " (1950) (Monogram) ... Bomba
*"Bomba and the Hidden City " (1950) (Monogram) ... Bomba
*"The Lion Hunters " (1951) (Monogram) ... Bomba
*"Bomba and the Elephant Stampede " (1951) (Monogram) ... Bomba
*"African Treasure " (1952) (Monogram) ... Bomba
*"Bomba and the Jungle Girl " (1952) (Monogram) ... Bomba
*"Safari Drums " (1953) (Allied Artists) ... Bomba
*"Killer Leopard " (1954) (Allied Artists) ... Bomba
*"The Golden Idol " (1954) (Allied Artists) ... Bomba
*"Lord of the Jungle " (1955) (Allied Artists) ... BombaExternal links
*imdb_name|id=0790788|name=Johnny Sheffield
* [http://www.searchmytrash.com/articles/johnnysheffield(4-08).shtml Johnny Sheffield biography on (re)Search my Trash]
* [http://www.tarzanmovieguide.com/bomba.htm Matt's Bomba the Jungle Boy Movie Guide]
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