Queer Places:
115 W 11th St, New York, NY 10011
25 Pryer Manor Rd, Larchmont, NY 10538
Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California
Tom
"Buddy" Drake (born Alfred Sinclair Alderdice,[1] August 5, 1918 – August 11, 1982) was an American actor. Drake made films starting in 1940 and continuing until the mid-1970s, and also made TV acting appearances.[2]
Tom Drake was a deeply closeted gay guy and he was easily given to despair. He was never known to have had a serious romance, although he bedded both
Rock Hudson and
James Dean. As an adult he lived with a profound drinking problem and he lived a life of fear with having his gayness found out.
John Carlyle worked regularly on television, on stage in and around Los Angeles, and toured in summer stock. In one production, he appeared with Tom Drake. He and Drake would have a one-night-stand.
Drake also had an affair with Merv
Griffin. Both Carlyle and Griffin had a relationship with Judy Garland,
with whom Drake worked in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).
Alfred Sinclair "Buddy" Alderdice was born in Brooklyn, New York,[3] and attended Iona Preparatory School and graduated from Mercersburg Academy.[4]
He was excused from serving in World War II due to heart problems.[2] Despite this limitation, he did act in British training films.
Billed as Alfred Alderdice, Drake appeared on Broadway in Run Sheep Run (1938) and Clean Beds (1939).[5]
After appearing in the film The Howards of Virginia (billed as Richard Alden),[3] he got his break after starring in the 1942 Broadway smash Janie,[6] after which he was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[7]
MGM started Drake in a support role in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944). He was third billed in a "B", Maisie Goes to Reno (1944) then had small roles in some "A" pictures, Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944) and Mrs. Parkington (1944).
He was Judy Garland's leading man in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)[3] playing John Truitt, the boy next door. This was the role for which Drake would be most identified.
MGM promoted him to leading roles with This Man's Navy (1944) co starring Wallace Beery.
MGM gave Drake the star role in The Green Years (1946), which was a huge hit.[8] It was followed by Courage of Lassie (1946), another big hit, and Faithful in My Fashion (1946), which lost money.
Universal borrowed him to play Deanna Durbin's leading man in I'll Be Yours (1947).[9]
Back at MGM Drake was a support in The Beginning or the End (1947) and Cass Timberlane (1947), and teamed with Beery again in Alias a Gentleman (1948). He did another Lassie film, Hills of Home (1948) and played composer Richard Rodgers in the loosely-based biography Words and Music (1948). Cass Timberlane was popular but the other films all lost money.[8]
Drake was borrowed by Fox to play the romantic lead in Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949) then at MGM was in Scene of the Crime (1949) with
Van Johnson. He made The Great Rupert (1950) for George Pal.
Tom Drake was married to Isabelle Eilenberger Wile
(1918–2015) during the 1940s.
Drake was a Roman Catholic[10] and a lifelong Democrat who supported Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.[11]
Drake began appearing on episodes of TV shows like The Ford Theatre Hour, Suspense, Lights Out, Tales of Tomorrow, The Unexpected
He went to Columbia for Never Trust a Gambler (1951) and to Allied Artists for Disc Jockey (1951). He appeared in F.B.I. Girl (1951), and Sangaree
(1953).
After television jobs for actors transitioned from live telecasts from New York to shows that were filmed in California, Drake had roles in the CBS series Lassie, NBC's Cimarron City, ABC's 77 Sunset Strip, ABC's The Rebel, CBS’ Perry Mason, ABC's Combat!, ABC's Land of the Giants, Land of the Giants, NBC's ADAM-12, ABC's The Streets of San Francisco and NBC's Banacek.
He continued to appear in features, starring in The Cyclops, Date with Disaster (1957) (a rare lead), and Raintree County (1957). He played the leader of a gang of criminals in Warlock (1959) and was in Money, Women and Guns (1958). He also had a minor role in the film The Singing Nun (1966), playing Ed Sullivan's producer Mr. Fitzpatrick.
He completed his last acting job in 1975, according to his obituary in the Chicago Tribune.[4]
Later that year Drake went to England for a starring part in a film Dare With Disaster (also the title of a chapter in my memoirs). He remained in Europe, living most of the time in Rome. Drake returned to California with his alcohol problem totally out of control & smoking a pack of cigarettes each day. Yet by the mid-1960s, a determined Drake somehow kicked both habits. He continued his career on TV, with the occasional film role: The Sandpiper (1965) with his pal
Elizabeth Taylor, The Singing Nun (1966) & 1967’s The Red Tomahawk.
A classic example of how a talented actor could fall between the cracks of the studio contract system, Drake spent a few of his final years with a job as a used car salesman, but as his health slipped & he had to to give up working altogether. He was taken by pneumonia, alone & mostly forgotten in a tiny apartment in Torrence, California in 1982.
Drake died of lung cancer at Torrance Memorial Hospital in Torrance, California (Los Angeles County) on August 11, 1982.[4] His body is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.[1]
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