Regis Toomey

John Regis Toomey (August 13, 1898 – October 12, 1991) was an American film and television actor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey and attended Peabody High School. He initially pondered a law career, but acting won out and he established himself as a musical stage performer. Educated in dramatics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he became a brother of Sigma Chi, Toomey began as a stock actor and eventually made it to Broadway. Toomey was a singer on stage until throat problems (acute laryngitis) while touring in Europe stopped that aspect of his career. In 1929, he appeared in his first films, initially starting out as a leading man, but finding more success as a character actor, sans his toupee. Toomey appeared in over 180 films, including classics such as The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart. In the 1954-1955 television season, Toomey appeared as Joe Mulligan, a police officer in Los Angeles and the father of the Mickey Rooney character Mickey Mulligan, in NBC's short-lived sitcom, The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan.

Actor