Thomas Gomez

Thomas Gomez was a fantastic American character actor. The diversity of costumes and varied acting styles has led this wonderful actor to not always receive the credit he deserves.

Gomez was born in New York City on July 10, 1975. Both his parents immigrated from Spain. In 1923, after graduating from high school, Gomez joined the Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne theater group. He made his stage debut in a production of “Cyrano de Bergerac” in Syracuse, New York. He worked in theater across the country, eventually returning to New York City and roles on Broadway.

Gomez made his film debut in 1942 with four films where he was mostly the bad guy. These films are Arabian Nights (1942), Pittsburgh (1942), Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), and Who Done It? (1942).

Gomez was prolific through the war years with Corvette K-255 (1943), Crazy House (1943), Frontier Badmen (1943), White Savage (1943), Bowery to Broadway (1944), Can’t Help Singing (1944), Dead Man’s Eyes (1944), Follow the Boys (1944), In Society (1944), Patrick the Great (1944), Phantom Lady (1944), The Climax (1944), Frisco Sal (1945), I’ll Tell the World (1945), and The Daltons Ride Again (1945).

After the war, he was in Night in Paradise (1946), Swell Guy (1946), and Captain from Castile (1947), before excelling in two very good Film Noirs, Johnny O’Clock (1947), and Ride the Pink Horse (1947). That year he was also in Singapore (1947).

In 1948, Gomez continued with Angel in Exile (1948), Casbah (1948), Film Noir Force of Evil (1948), and a role in one of the greatest films ever made, Key Largo (1948),

1949 found Gomez mixing musicals and romances with Film Noir. This year’s films include Come to the Stable (1949), Sorrowful Jones (1949), That Midnight Kiss (1949), and Film Noir The Woman on Pier 13 (1949).

The decade of the 1950s found Gomez in costume dramas like Kim (1950), The Eagle and the Hawk (1950), Anne of the Indies (1951), The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954), The Gambler from Natchez (1954), John Paul Jones (1959), westerns such as The Furies (1950), Pony Soldier (1952), more Film Noir with films like Macao (1952), Las Vegas Shakedown (1955), The Sellout (1952), and musicals such as The Merry Widow (1952).

Other films include Sombrero (1953), Night Freight (1955), The Looters (1955), The Magnificent Matador (1955), Trapeze (1956), But Not for Me (1959), Summer and Smoke (1961), and Stay Away, Joe (1968),

An important film for Gomez is The Harlem Globetrotters (1951) where Gomez played the man that came up with the idea of the Globetrotters. Another important movie for Gomez was The Conqueror (1956), where Gomez was one of the few major stars that did not contract cancer as a result of filming at the site of an atomic blast. Gomez’s final film was a small role in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970).

Gomez was a large man, weighing around 290 pounds during much of his career. While a character actor in film, Gomez was very active on television, and he was a major stage star. He played Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and Thomas Cromwell in ‘A Man For All Seasons.’

Gomez was in an auto accident in May 1971. He languished in a coma for three weeks before dying on June 18[1]. He was 65 years old.

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[1] https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/20/archives/thomas-gomez-actor65-dies-appeared-in-films-theater-and-tv-mainly.html

Reviewed Movie with Thomas Gomez