Sonny Tufts
Biography
Sonny Tufts was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Born in Boston, he attended Yale, sang with the Whiffenpoofs, graduated in 1935, and tried out for the Metropolitan Opera before appearing on Broadway in Who's Who and Sing for Your Supper. A screen test led Paramount to sign him, and his first film role, in the World War II drama So Proudly We Hail (1943), drew praise from critics and launched his career. As a Paramount contract star in the 1940s he appeared in The Virginian (1946), among other films. Freelancing afterward, he played a villain in the noir The Crooked Way (1949) and appeared in Easy Living (1949). Later credits included Gift Horse (1952), Cat-Women of the Moon (1953), a low-budget film that became a cult favorite, a small part in The Seven Year Itch (1955), and Town Tamer (1965). He also appeared on television in The Virginian, The Loner, and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
58years old at death
- Born Boston
- Died Santa Monica
- Star sign: CancerThe sign runs June 21 to July 22
- Also credited as Bowen Charlton Tufts III
Movie Career
- Films
- 8
- Career span
- 22 years1943 to 1965
First and latest
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Big break
Sonny Tufts got his start in Hollywood after a Yale classmate urged him to move there; a hotel manager friend then took him to Paramount, where casting director Joe Egli made a screen test and signed him.
First role
Tufts's first screen role was as Kansas, a Marine and Paulette Goddard's love interest in the 1943 war drama So Proudly We Hail!, a hit that brought him 1,700 fan letters a week and the title "The Find of 1943."
A role that slipped away
Tufts lost the lead in Standing Room Only when RKO borrowed him for Government Girl, and Fred MacMurray took his place.
Behind the camera
In 1962, Tufts went back to Hollywood to star in and produce All the Way, a film about paratroopers. The project was never made.
Sonny Tufts movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Worked with
Sonny Tufts shares two films with Barbara Britton, and one with each of the others. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Barbara Britton's page
Bess Flowers's page
Lon Chaney Jr.'s page
Trevor Howard's page
Henry O'Neill's page
John Litel's page
All films by Billy Wilder
Mark SandrichDirector, 1 film, 1943
All films by Mark Sandrich
Arthur HiltonDirector, 1 film, 1953
All films by Arthur Hilton
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.