x

Login

Remember me
Forget password ?

Or via social

x

sign up

person_profile-Johnny Sheffield

Johnny Sheffield Died at age: 79

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Johnny Sheffield

Date of Birth:

Apr 11, 1931

Country of birth:

USA

Died:

Oct 15, 2010

Biography of

Johnny Sheffield

    Johnny Sheffield (born John Matthew Sheffield Cassan) was an American child, teen, and young-adult actor, his screen career lasting from 1938 to 1955.

    In 1938, Sheffield became a child star after he was cast in the juvenile lead of a West Coast production of the highly successful Broadway play On Borrowed Time, which starred Dudley Digges and featured Victor Moore as Gramps. Sheffield played the role of Pud, a long role for a child. He later went to New York as a replacement and performed the role on Broadway. The following year, his father read an article in The Hollywood Reporter that asked, "Have you a Tarzan Jr. in your backyard?" He believed he did and set up an interview. MGM was searching for a suitable youngster to play the adopted son of Tarzan in its next jungle movie with stars Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan. When he was 5 years old, Sheffield was taken to an audition where Weissmuller chose him over more than 300 juvenile actors interviewed for the part of "Boy" in Tarzan Finds a Son. In that same year, Sheffield appeared in the Busby Berkeley movie musical Babes in Arms with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, classmates of his at the studio school.

    He appeared with many other performers over the years, including Jeanette MacDonald, Pat O'Brien, Cesar Romero, Ronald Reagan and Beverly Garland. He played the childhood version of the title character in Knute Rockne, All American, perhaps the most prestigious film in which he had a role.

    Sheffield played Boy in three Tarzan movies at MGM, and in another five after the star, Weissmuller, and production of the movie series moved to RKO. Brenda Joyce played Jane in the last three Tarzan movies in which Sheffield appeared.

    After he outgrew the role of Boy, the teenaged Sheffield went on to star in his own jungle movie series for Allied Artists. In 1949, he made Bomba, the Jungle Boy with co-star Peggy Ann Garner. In all, he appeared as Bomba 12 times, more than any other character he portrayed. Sheffield appeared in his last movie, as Bomba, in 1955.

    He then made a pilot for a television series, Bantu the Zebra Boy, which was created, produced and directed by his father, Reginald Sheffield. Although the production values were high compared to other TV jungle shows of the day, a sponsor was not found and the show was never produced as a weekly series.

Photos of

Johnny Sheffield

Photos ( 3 Photos

Filmography of

Johnny Sheffield

Found 26 Movies in total

... 2004

Lord of the Jungle

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1955

Killer Leopard

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1954

The Golden Idol

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1954

Safari Drums

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1953

... 1952

African Treasure

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1952

Elephant Stampede

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1951

The Lion Hunters

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1951

... 1950

The Lost Volcano

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1950

... 1949

Bomba, the Jungle Boy

Bomba ( Actor )

... 1949

... 1947

... 1946

... 1945

... 1943

Tarzan Triumphs

Boy ( Actor )

... 1943

... 1942

... 1941

Million Dollar Baby

Alvie Grayson ( Actor )

... 1941

Knute Rockne All American

Knute - Age 7 ( Actor )

... 1940

Lucky Cisco Kid

Tommy Lawrence ( Actor )

... 1940

Little Orvie

Orvie Stone ( Actor )

... 1940

Babes in Arms

Bobs (as John Sheffield) ( Actor )

... 1939

Tarzan Finds a Son!

Boy ( Actor )

... 1939