Larry Simms reached veteran standing the slow way, as an American actor with a body of work built one job at a time. Careers that pass the 89-year mark are a small club. In cinemas, 'It's a Wonderful Life' is the work that stuck — Pete Bailey, specifically. Elsewhere on the filmography sits 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'. The first credits arrived long before the title most people know.
Larry Simms
74 years (Oct 1, 1934 – Jun 17, 2009)Los Angeles, California, USA
36 Movies
Larry Simms reached veteran standing the slow way, as an American actor with a body of work built one job at a time. Careers that pass the 89-year mark are a small club. In cinemas, 'It's a Wonderful Life' is the work that stuck — Pete Bailey, specifically. Elsewhere on the filmography sits 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'. The first credits arrived long before the title most people know.
Larry Lee Simms was an aerospace engineer and former child actor. He worked as a child model from the age of two and was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout when he appeared in a 1937 Saturday Evening Post advertisement. His first film was The Last Gangster (1937), where he played Edward G. Robinson's young son. Simms became known for his appearances as Alexander "Baby Dumpling" Bumstead in the popular Blondie film series starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. He retired from show business to join the Navy (he appeared in uniform as himself in the Columbia Screen Snaphots short Hollywood Grows Up), then studied aeronautical engineering at California Polytech. He later worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California and around the world as an engineer until his retirement from aeronautical engineering.