Tom Fadden

Tom Fadden (January 6, 1895 – April 14, 1980) was an American character actor whose career spanned over six decades across stage, vaudeville, film, and television. Born in Bayard, Iowa, he was the son of a mining engineer and grew up moving across the western United States, eventually graduating from Creighton University in Nebraska before joining a theater company in Omaha in 1915. His early work in stock companies and vaudeville laid the foundation for a Broadway debut in 1924 as Peter Jekyll in The Wonderful Visit, and he went on to appear in more than twenty productions including The Petrified Forest (1935) and Our Town (1938). During a London revival of The Butter and Egg Man he met his first wife, Genevieve Bartolocci, cementing both personal and professional ties to the theatre world. Fadden transitioned to film with a small role in I Stole a Million (1939) and quickly became a reliable supporting player, often cast in mild‑mannered or working‑class roles. Notable screen appearances include Destry Rides Again (1939), The Big Sleep (1946), and the iconic toll‑house keeper in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), where his brief but memorable performance earned the lasting admiration of director Frank Capra. The 1950s saw him in genre classics such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Baby Face Nelson (1957), while his television work included the pioneering role of Eben Kent in the first episode of The Adventures of Superman and recurring spots on Broken Arrow and Petticoat Junction. His final screen credit was the 1977 sci‑fi horror film Empire of the Ants. After a long and varied career, Fadden retired in the late 1970s and died of natural causes in Vero Beach, Florida, on April 14, 1980, leaving behind a legacy of more than ninety film appearances and a reputation as a consummate character actor.