Sonny Tufts

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Sonny Tufts born Bowen Charlton Tufts III July 16 1911 Boston Massachusetts June 4 1970 Santa Monica California was a United States film actor Tufts was born into a prominent banking family whose patriarch had supposedly sailed to America from England in 1683 He broke with the family banking tradition by studying opera at Yale where he was a member of Skull and Bones After graduating from college in 1935 he auditioned with the Metropolitan Opera in New York but eventually worked on the Broadway stage In 1942 Tufts went to Hollywood He attained some fame during World War II principally because due to an old college football injury he was one of the few handsome male actors not serving overseas in the war He was married to Spanish dancer Barbara Dare from 1938 to 1953 In the 1980s he was best known as one of the semirandom people and places that TV host Johnny Carson used in his jokes Tufts died of pneumonia at age 58 in Santa Monica California on June 4 1970 Tufts is the subject of an urban legend The legend holds that he had been selected to host a wellknown radio show as a lastminute replacement for a better known celebrity The week before Tuftss episode was scheduled the previous host introduced him with a combination of surprise and outrage shocked that a relatively unknown actor would succeed him as host There is no evidence however that such an incident occurred Tufts himself parodied this legend in frequent appearances on Rowan Martins LaughIn seated in a directors chair with his name printed on it he would turn around to face the camera and utter a word or phrase relevant to the previous bit in mock contempt Sonny Tufts was related to Charles Tufts for whom Tufts University is named In a non sequitur on the cartoon show Rocky and His Friends in the Jet Fuel Formula story arc Bullwinkle J Moose becomes very upset when Boris Badenov steals his autographed picture of Sonny Tufts Also Tufts is mentioned in the last sentence of the third sketch of the 48th show of the second season of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show also featuring Wailing Whale episodes 5 6 which was first released on May 13 1961 In an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show Rob sees a flying saucer that makes a noise Uhny Uftz which Rob mishears as Sonny Tufts In Episode 12 Season 1 of the TV sitcom My Mother The Car titled And Leave The DriveIn To Us the mother wants to go to a drivein to see Sonny Tufts for her birthday He makes an appearance at the very end of the episode much to the appreciation of the car Sonny Tufts was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity Phi chapter Description above from the Wikipedia article Sonny Tufts licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia