Tom Nolan (actor)

Infobox actor
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name = Tom Nolan


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birthname = Bernard Girouard
birthdate = birth date and age |1948|01|15
location = Montreal in Quebec, Canada
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notable role = shitbag
occupation = Actor; Writer
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Tom Nolan (born January 15, 1948) is an actor whose career dates back to his work in the 1970s. Nolan was born of irish descent as Bernard Girouard in beverly in the Essex County of Massachusetts. His family moved to Beverly where he immediately started dance classes. His television debut was as Prince Edward of Wales, the son of Henry VIII, on NBC's "Hallmark Hall of Fame". The jug-eared lad often portrayed young boys with afflictions, such as a crippled youngster on an episode of "My Friend Flicka" (CBS and later NBC) or an asthmatic on NBC's "Medic", the first television medical series, which starred Richard Boone. At the age of ten, Tommy was cast as Jody O'Connell in the NBC Western series "Buckskin", which produced thirty-nine original episodes that ran between July 3, 1958, and September 14, 1959. It started as a summer replacement series for Tennessee Ernie Ford and was held over after a month's hiatus in October 1958. It was repeated in the summers of 1959 and 1965.

Sally Brophy played Jody's widowed mother, Annie O'Connell, who operated the boarding house in the fictitious town of Buckskin, Montana. Mike Road played the marshal, Tom Sellers. The program was unique in that it was a nonviolent Western seen from a child's perspective, with Tommy narrating each episode while sitting on his corral fence and playing his harmonica. The program focused on the interesting plethora of individuals who passed through Buckskin in the heyday of the "Old West". The series was successful enough for Nolan to have developed comic books with his character, and his autograph was sought at parades, conventions, and other public gatherings. After "Buckskin" (which continued in repeats on an irregular basis until 1965), Nolan appeared in such westerns as CBS's "Rawhide" and "Gunsmoke", ABC's "The Rifleman", and "Wagon Train" (NBC and ABC). He had a recurring roles on CBS's "Lassie" as well. Even before "Buckskin", Nolan had unsuccessfully sought the lead role in "Circus Boy" but lost to Micky Dolenz, later of The Monkees. He was unable to find another regular series, and he ended the first half of his acting career with a small part in the 1970 film "The Moonshine War". Nolan has penned articles for "Playboy", the "Los Angeles Times", and the "Village Voice", among other publications.

This Tom Nolan is mistakenly credited at several websites as returning to acting with roles in the Richard Gere film "Yanks" in 1979 and in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" in (1982), and in "Tequila Sunrise" in 1988. Those roles were in fact played by another actor also named Tom Nolan, who was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1953, and is now the lead singer in a southern California group called Tom Nolan Band.

Other Tommy Nolan roles were"Up the Creek" (1984), "School Spirit" (1985), "Pretty Woman" (1990), "The Thing Called Love" (1993), and "White Man's Burden" (1995). In 2005, he played a valet in "Batman Begins", his most recent role.

After "Buckskin", the then 12-year-old Nolan summed up his situation accordingly:

"They teach you to succeed, but you're unprepared for failure. You're led to expect fame, but no one tells you about the rejection waiting at the end of the trip. Something fantastic had been given to me, then taken away, leaving a big hollow place at the center of my twelve-year-old life."

Nolan resides in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

Reference

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0634363/bio