Tommy Sands

Tommy Sands is an American singer and actor who started in show business as a child and became a teen idol after playing The Singin' Idol on Kraft Television Theater in 1957. Born in Chicago into a musical family, he began guitar at eight and soon performed twice weekly on a local radio station, and Colonel Tom Parker signed him to RCA Records at fifteen. His song Teen-Age Crush became a gold record and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Cashbox. He released the album Steady Date with Tommy Sands (1957) and then moved into films under a 20th Century Fox contract. At Disney he appeared in the fantasy musical Babes in Toyland (1961) with Annette Funicello, and he later took a support part in the Warner film Ensign Pulver (1964). He also appeared in None But the Brave (1965), directed by and starring Frank Sinatra, and worked often in television.