Tommy Cole
Encyclopedia
Tommy Cole is an American
make-up artist, a former actor
and singer who is still best known for having been a Mouseketeer
.
, Tommy Cole grew up in the Los Angeles
suburb of La Cañada
. He was self-motivated toward performing from an early age, despite the disapproval of some of his more strict Lutheran relatives. His father was an editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; his mother later worked part-time at movie studios as a welfare guardian for minor children. He has one older brother, John Cole.
as a young teenager with three other kids in a western swing
band. The band played in amateur contests and small clubs, and even managed to get a one-time gig on Ray Bolger's
mid-1950s television show Where's Raymond?
Besides playing the accordion, he was also the band's singer. When the ensemble auditioned together at the Disney Studio
for The Mickey Mouse Club in spring 1955, he was the only one selected to join the cast of Mouseketeers.
Though he started on the second-string Blue Team, Tommy Cole's singing ability earned him a transfer to The Mickey Mouse Club's first-string Red Team midway through the 1955–56 season. He remained with the show for its final two seasons (1956–1958) of original programming and, after filming stopped, attended Hollywood Professional School
and went on live-performance tours with other Mouseketeers to Australia
in 1959 and 1960.
For the next several years Tommy Cole's career was based on live-singing at teenage clubs, public events, and as an opening act for other performers. He attended Pasadena City College
, did a hitch in the Air Force, and had guest star parts on a few television shows. By 1964, he had realized that his days as a performer were ending, and so looked around for some other way to stay in show business
.
in 1963, Tommy Cole had started learning make-up technique from one of the show's regular artists. He soon joined the craft as an apprentice, working first for ABC
, then later in the sixties for NBC
. He began freelancing as a make-up artist in the early seventies, gathering Emmy nominations in 1975 for Masquerade Party
and 1978 for Once Upon a Brothers Grimm
, before winning, along with Mark Bussan and Ron Walters, in 1979 for Backstairs at the White House.
Tommy has since been nominated for Emmy awards for the miniseries Right to Die
(1988), the television series Wings (1996), and most recently for the TV special Gepetto
(2000), for which he shared in winning the Hollywood Makeup Artists and Hairstylist Guild Award. He has long been active in his craft's union, serving in 2003 as business representative for Local 706 of the Makeup Artists and Hairstylist Guild. He currently represents his guild on the Governor's Board of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
.
, on a USO tour in the mid-sixties, and were married when they had both returned stateside. They have two children, now adults.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
make-up artist, a former actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and singer who is still best known for having been a Mouseketeer
Mickey Mouse Club
The Mickey Mouse Club is an American variety television show that began in 1955, produced by Walt Disney Productions and televised by the ABC, featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. The Mickey Mouse Club was created by Walt Disney...
.
Early life
Although born in Burbank, CaliforniaBurbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, Tommy Cole grew up in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
suburb of La Cañada
La Cañada Flintridge, California
La Cañada Flintridge is a small and affluent city in Los Angeles County, California, United States whose population at the 2010 census was 20,246, down from 20,318 at the 2000 census. According to Forbes, as of 2010, La Cañada Flintridge ranks as the 143rd most expensive U.S...
. He was self-motivated toward performing from an early age, despite the disapproval of some of his more strict Lutheran relatives. His father was an editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; his mother later worked part-time at movie studios as a welfare guardian for minor children. He has one older brother, John Cole.
Performer
Tommy Cole started as a musician, playing the accordionAccordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
as a young teenager with three other kids in a western swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
band. The band played in amateur contests and small clubs, and even managed to get a one-time gig on Ray Bolger's
Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
mid-1950s television show Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond? is a 1953-1954 ABC situation comedy television series starring Ray Bolger as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who is consistently barely on time for his performances...
Besides playing the accordion, he was also the band's singer. When the ensemble auditioned together at the Disney Studio
Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)
The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, United States, serve as the international headquarters for media conglomerate The Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Studio's house offices for each of the company's divisions along with creative spaces designed for movie production. The Walt Disney...
for The Mickey Mouse Club in spring 1955, he was the only one selected to join the cast of Mouseketeers.
Though he started on the second-string Blue Team, Tommy Cole's singing ability earned him a transfer to The Mickey Mouse Club's first-string Red Team midway through the 1955–56 season. He remained with the show for its final two seasons (1956–1958) of original programming and, after filming stopped, attended Hollywood Professional School
Hollywood Professional School
Hollywood Professional School was a private school in Hollywood, California, United States, for children working in show business, operating mornings only so that the children could work in the afternoon...
and went on live-performance tours with other Mouseketeers to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1959 and 1960.
For the next several years Tommy Cole's career was based on live-singing at teenage clubs, public events, and as an opening act for other performers. He attended Pasadena City College
Pasadena City College
Pasadena City College is a community college in Pasadena, California, USA, located on Colorado Boulevard. PCC is the third largest community college campus in the United States. PCC was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. In 1954, Pasadena Junior College merged with another junior...
, did a hitch in the Air Force, and had guest star parts on a few television shows. By 1964, he had realized that his days as a performer were ending, and so looked around for some other way to stay in show business
Show business
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element ....
.
Make-up artist
While acting in an episode of My Three SonsMy Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
in 1963, Tommy Cole had started learning make-up technique from one of the show's regular artists. He soon joined the craft as an apprentice, working first for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, then later in the sixties for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. He began freelancing as a make-up artist in the early seventies, gathering Emmy nominations in 1975 for Masquerade Party
Masquerade Party
A syndicated revival was produced by Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall in 1974, hosted by Richard Dawson and announced by Jay Stewart. The basic premise was the same as the original show. Bill Bixby, Lee Meriweather, and Nipsey Russell were regular panelists. Col. Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried...
and 1978 for Once Upon a Brothers Grimm
Once Upon a Brothers Grimm
Once Upon a Brothers Grimm is a musical children's fantasy film directed by Norman Campbell. It follows the Brothers Grimm as they make their way to a king's palace with their fairy tales. It was originally released for TV...
, before winning, along with Mark Bussan and Ron Walters, in 1979 for Backstairs at the White House.
Tommy has since been nominated for Emmy awards for the miniseries Right to Die
Right to Die (film)
Right to Die, directed by Paul Wendkos, was a 1987 made-for-TV film that explored issues relating to the Right to Die movement. Raquel Welch was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1988 for her performance as Emily Bauer, a psychologist diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease who comes to desire her own...
(1988), the television series Wings (1996), and most recently for the TV special Gepetto
Geppetto (TV musical)
Geppetto is a 2000 made-for-television remake of the popular children’s book The Adventures of Pinocchio starring Drew Carey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus...
(2000), for which he shared in winning the Hollywood Makeup Artists and Hairstylist Guild Award. He has long been active in his craft's union, serving in 2003 as business representative for Local 706 of the Makeup Artists and Hairstylist Guild. He currently represents his guild on the Governor's Board of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was founded in 1946, just one month after network television was born. It is a nonprofit organization devoted to the advancement of telecommunications arts and sciences and to fostering creative leadership in the telecommunications industry...
.
Personal life
Tommy's wife Aileen is a former dancer. They met in KoreaKorea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, on a USO tour in the mid-sixties, and were married when they had both returned stateside. They have two children, now adults.
Filmography
- Westward Ho, the Wagons!Westward Ho, The Wagons!Westward Ho, the Wagons! is a 1956 live-action Disney western film, aimed at family audiences. Based on Mary Jane Carr's novel Children of the Covered Wagon, the film was produced by Bill Walsh, directed by William Beaudine, and released to theatres on December 20, 1956 by Buena Vista Distribution...
(1956) ... as Jim Stephen - Pretty in PinkPretty in PinkPretty in Pink is a 1986 American teen romantic comedy-drama film about teenage love and social cliques in 1980s American high schools. It is one of a group of John Hughes films starring Molly Ringwald, and is commonly identified as a "Brat Pack" film...
(1986) ... makeup artist - L.A. ConfidentialL.A. ConfidentialL.A. Confidential is a 1997 American film based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same title, the third book in his L.A. Quartet. Both the book and the film tell the story of a group of LAPD officers in the 1950s, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity...
(1997) ... makeup artist - Presence of MindPresence of MindPresence of Mind is a 1999 feature film. The film is based on the story The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. A woman is hired to watch over two recently orphaned children, Flora and her brother Miles . The woman starts seeing ghosts and the children begin some very peculiar and disturbing behavior....
(1999) ... makeup artist - Forever FabulousForever FabulousForever Fabulous is a 1999 comedy starring Jean Smart, Jennifer Elise Cox, Robert Wagner, Emily Proctor and Jorja Fox, which was written and directed by Werner Molinsky and initially screened at the under the title Tiara Tango at the 1999 Austin Film Festival...
(1999) ... makeup artist - Sorority BoysSorority BoysSorority Boys is a 2002 comedy film directed by Wallace Wolodarsky, about a group of college guys who dress up as women to prove their innocence for a crime they didn't commit.-Plot:...
(2002) ... head of makeup department
Television credits
- Where's Raymond?Where's Raymond?Where's Raymond? is a 1953-1954 ABC situation comedy television series starring Ray Bolger as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who is consistently barely on time for his performances...
: 1 episode (1955) ....as unknown - The Mickey Mouse Club: series regular (1955–1958) ....as Mouseketeer Tommy
- Disneyland: "The Fourth Anniversary Show" (1957) ....as Mouseketeer Tommy
- Leave It to BeaverLeave It to BeaverLeave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
: "Borrowed Boat" (1959) ....as Red Bennett - My Three SonsMy Three SonsMy Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
: "A Car of His Own" (1963) ....as Jimmy - Masquerade PartyMasquerade PartyA syndicated revival was produced by Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall in 1974, hosted by Richard Dawson and announced by Jay Stewart. The basic premise was the same as the original show. Bill Bixby, Lee Meriweather, and Nipsey Russell were regular panelists. Col. Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried...
TV series (1974) ....makeup artist - Once Upon a Brothers GrimmOnce Upon a Brothers GrimmOnce Upon a Brothers Grimm is a musical children's fantasy film directed by Norman Campbell. It follows the Brothers Grimm as they make their way to a king's palace with their fairy tales. It was originally released for TV...
TV Movie (1977) ....makeup artist - Backstairs at the White House TV Miniseries (1979) ....makeup artist
- The Wonderful World of Disney: "The Mouseketeer Reunion" (1980) ....as Mouseketeer Tommy
- Right to DieRight to Die (film)Right to Die, directed by Paul Wendkos, was a 1987 made-for-TV film that explored issues relating to the Right to Die movement. Raquel Welch was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1988 for her performance as Emily Bauer, a psychologist diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease who comes to desire her own...
TV Movie (1987) ....makeup artist - The Mickey Mouse Club Story documentary (1995) ...as Tommy Cole
- GepettoGeppetto (TV musical)Geppetto is a 2000 made-for-television remake of the popular children’s book The Adventures of Pinocchio starring Drew Carey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus...
TV special (2000) ....makeup artist