Dave Willock

Stars

Actor Born Aug. 13, 1909 in Chicago, Ill.

In a career that spanned five decades, Dave Willock portrayed congenial neighbors, ardent suitors and an assortment of handymen or juvenile leads in musicals, war adventures, high dramas and Westerns.

On television he was on "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show" in 1968, "Do It Yourself" with Cliff Arquette in 1955, "Margie" in 1961-62 and "The Queen and I," a 1969 Thursday night CBS comedy.

Willock was a lifelong friend of actor Jack Carson and left the University of Wisconsin in 1931 to join Carson in vaudeville. When Carson landed a radio show in the mid-1940s, Willock followed him there playing both Tugwell, Carson's flighty neighbor, and the little girl next door.

In 1942 alone he was seen in five films: "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "The Fleet's In," "Two Yanks in Trinidad," "Lucky Jordan" and "Priorities on Parade."

He made several of the dramas prevalent during World War II—"30 Seconds Over Tokyo," "Wing and a Prayer," "Pride of the Marines"—and one of the psychodramas that Hollywood turned to after the war, "Spellbound."

— Burt A. Folkart in the Los Angeles Times Nov. 14, 1990

Related

• Dave Willock, 81; 5 Decades of Sidekick Roles