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Johnny Sheffield‌

Gender

Male

Birthday

calendar1931-04-11

Popularity

star2.0

Johnny Sheffield

Pasadena, California, USA

Johnny Sheffield

Pasadena, California, USA

Gender

Male

Birthday

calendar1931-04-11

Popularity

star2.0

Biography

Johnny Sheffield (born John Matthew Sheffield Cassan) was an American child, teen, and young-adult actor, his screen career lasting from 1938 to 1955. In 1938, Sheffield became a child star after he was cast in the juvenile lead of a West Coast production of the highly successful Broadway play On Borrowed Time, which starred Dudley Digges and featured Victor Moore as Gramps. Sheffield played the role of Pud, a long role for a child. He later went to New York as a replacement and performed the role on Broadway. The following year, his father read an article in The Hollywood Reporter that asked, "Have you a Tarzan Jr. in your backyard?" He believed he did and set up an interview. MGM was searching for a suitable youngster to play the adopted son of Tarzan in its next jungle movie with stars Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan. When he was 5 years old, Sheffield was taken to an audition where Weissmuller chose him over more than 300 juvenile actors interviewed for the part of "Boy" in Tarzan Finds a Son. In that same year, Sheffield appeared in the Busby Berkeley movie musical Babes in Arms with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, classmates of his at the studio school. He appeared with many other performers over the years, including Jeanette MacDonald, Pat O'Brien, Cesar Romero, Ronald Reagan and Beverly Garland. He played the childhood version of the title character in Knute Rockne, All American, perhaps the most prestigious film in which he had a role. Sheffield played Boy in three Tarzan movies at MGM, and in another five after the star, Weissmuller, and production of the movie series moved to RKO. Brenda Joyce played Jane in the last three Tarzan movies in which Sheffield appeared. After he outgrew the role of Boy, the teenaged Sheffield went on to star in his own jungle movie series for Allied Artists. In 1949, he made Bomba, the Jungle Boy with co-star Peggy Ann Garner. In all, he appeared as Bomba 12 times, more than any other character he portrayed. Sheffield appeared in his last movie, as Bomba, in 1955. He then made a pilot for a television series, Bantu the Zebra Boy, which was created, produced and directed by his father, Reginald Sheffield. Although the production values were high compared to other TV jungle shows of the day, a sponsor was not found and the show was never produced as a weekly series.

Movie Credits

Tarzan's New York Adventure

Tarzan's New York Adventure‌
star6.4
calendar 1942

Tarzan Finds a Son!

Tarzan Finds a Son!‌
star6.1
calendar 1939

Tarzan's Secret Treasure

Tarzan's Secret Treasure‌
star5.7
calendar 1941

Killer Leopard

Killer Leopard‌
star5.0
calendar 1954

Tarzan and the Huntress

Tarzan and the Huntress‌
star5.6
calendar 1947

Tarzan Triumphs

Tarzan Triumphs‌
star6.1
calendar 1943

Tarzan and the Amazons

Tarzan and the Amazons‌
star6.3
calendar 1945

Tarzan and the Leopard Woman

Tarzan and the Leopard Woman‌
star5.7
calendar 1946

Tarzan's Desert Mystery

Tarzan's Desert Mystery‌
star6.1
calendar 1943

Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby‌
star6.0
calendar 1941

Bomba, the Jungle Boy

Bomba, the Jungle Boy‌
star5.5
calendar 1949

African Treasure

African Treasure‌
star6.9
calendar 1952

Charlie Chan's Lucky Director: H. Bruce Humberstone

Charlie Chan's Lucky Director: H. Bruce Humberstone‌
star0.0
calendar 2006

The Lost Volcano

The Lost Volcano‌
star5.3
calendar 1950

Safari Drums

Safari Drums‌
star5.2
calendar 1953

Lucky Cisco Kid

Lucky Cisco Kid‌
star5.6
calendar 1940

Bomba on Panther Island

Bomba on Panther Island‌
star5.0
calendar 1949

Elephant Stampede

Elephant Stampede‌
star5.1
calendar 1951

Bomba and the Hidden City

Bomba and the Hidden City‌
star4.6
calendar 1950

The Lion Hunters

The Lion Hunters‌
star5.3
calendar 1951

Bomba and the Jungle Girl

Bomba and the Jungle Girl‌
star5.2
calendar 1952

The Golden Idol

The Golden Idol‌
star4.2
calendar 1954

Lord of the Jungle

Lord of the Jungle‌
star6.4
calendar 1955

Babes in Arms

Babes in Arms‌
star6.4
calendar 1939

Little Orvie

Little Orvie‌
star7.0
calendar 1940

Knute Rockne All American

Knute Rockne All American‌
star5.9
calendar 1940

The Man on the Rock

The Man on the Rock‌
star6.0
calendar 1938

The One, the Only, the Real Tarzan

The One, the Only, the Real Tarzan‌
star7.3
calendar 2004

Tv Credits