Tommy Cole

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Tommy Cole
Tommy Cole with Glenn Scarpelli
Born (1941-12-20) December 20, 1941 (age 82)
Burbank, California
Occupation(s)Make-up artist, actor, and singer
Years active1955–2007
Spouse(s)Aileen Cole (1966–present); 2 children

Tommy Cole (born December 20, 1941) is an American make-up artist, actor, and singer who appeared as a Mouseketeer on the Mickey Mouse Club television series.

Early life

Although born in Burbank, California, Tommy Cole grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of La Cañada. He was self-motivated toward performing from an early age, despite some disapproval from his family.[1] 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.

Career

Performer

Cole started as a musician, playing the accordion 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 the spring 1955, he was the only one selected to join the cast of Mouseketeers.

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

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. [citation needed
]

Make-up artist

While acting in an episode of

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
.

Cole has since been nominated for Emmy awards for the miniseries

Gepetto (2000), for which he shared in winning the Hollywood Makeup Artists and Hairstylist Guild Award. [citation needed
]

Personal life

Tommy's wife Aileen is a former dancer. They met in

USO
tour in the mid-1960s, and married after they had both returned stateside. They have two children.

Select filmography

Select credits as makeup artist

Select credits as actor

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tommy Cole.
  1. ISBN 0-385-11622-5

External links
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