Eddie Hodges (born March 5, 1947) is a
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
former
child actorThe term child actor is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion the latter is also called a former child actor...
and recording artist who left
show businessShow business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element...
as an adult.
Hodges was born in
HattiesburgHattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census.Founded in 1882 by pioneer lumberman and civil engineer William H. Hardy, Hattiesburg was named in honor of Hardy's wife Hattie. The town was incorporated two years later with a...
,
MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
,
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Hodges travelled to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
with his family and on October 4, 1957, was a contestant on the TV
game showA game show is a type of television program in which members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving problems usually for money and/or prizes. On some shows contestants compete against other players or another team while...
Name That TuneName That Tune was a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife, Roberta....
. The story presented to the press at the time was that he was noticed by Rini Willson, the wife of
playwrightA playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors...
and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
Meredith WillsonRobert Meredith Willson was an American composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1958...
who was looking for a boy to cast in a new musical; however, the fact was that he had been auditioning for the part prior to being asked to appear on the game show, and that there was an agreement between the producers of the two productions that the boy chosen to play the role in the musical would be "discovered" on the television show.
Hodges' partner contestant on
Name That Tune was Marine Corps test pilot Col.
Eddie Hodges (born March 5, 1947) is a
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
former
child actorThe term child actor is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion the latter is also called a former child actor...
and recording artist who left
show businessShow business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element...
as an adult.
Early life and career
Hodges was born in
HattiesburgHattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census.Founded in 1882 by pioneer lumberman and civil engineer William H. Hardy, Hattiesburg was named in honor of Hardy's wife Hattie. The town was incorporated two years later with a...
,
MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
,
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Hodges travelled to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
with his family and on October 4, 1957, was a contestant on the TV
game showA game show is a type of television program in which members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving problems usually for money and/or prizes. On some shows contestants compete against other players or another team while...
Name That TuneName That Tune was a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife, Roberta....
. The story presented to the press at the time was that he was noticed by Rini Willson, the wife of
playwrightA playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors...
and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
Meredith WillsonRobert Meredith Willson was an American composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1958...
who was looking for a boy to cast in a new musical; however, the fact was that he had been auditioning for the part prior to being asked to appear on the game show, and that there was an agreement between the producers of the two productions that the boy chosen to play the role in the musical would be "discovered" on the television show.
Hodges' partner contestant on
Name That Tune was Marine Corps test pilot Col.
John GlennJohn Herschel Glenn Jr. is a retired United States Marine Corps pilot, a former astronaut and United States Senator who was the first American and third person to orbit the Earth. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program, NASA's original astronaut group. He...
, later an astronaut, United States Senator and presidential candidate.
Acting career
Hodges made his professional acting debut on stage in Willson's 1957
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musical
The Music ManThe Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson. The show is based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping...
. He made his film debut in the 1959 film
A Hole in the HeadA Hole in the Head is a comedy film directed by Frank Capra and featuring Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Parker, Keenan Wynn, Carolyn Jones, Thelma Ritter, Dub Taylor and Joi Lansing. The film introduced the song "High Hopes", a Sinatra standard used as a John F. Kennedy campaign song...
with
Frank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
and
Edward G. RobinsonEdward Goldenberg Robinson, Sr. was an American actor born in Romania...
, in which Hodges and Sinatra performed a song called
High Hopes"High Hopes" is a popular song, introduced in the 1959 film A Hole In The Head, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1959. The music was written by Jimmy Van Heusen, the lyrics by Sammy Cahn.-Description:...
. Hodges did not perform on Sinatra's hit recording of the song.
Hodges made eight feature films and numerous TV guest appearances. He is probably best remembered for the title role in
Michael CurtizMichael Curtiz was a Hungarian-American filmmaker. He directed more than fifty films in Europe and more than one hundred in the United States. The best-known were The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and White Christmas. He thrived in the heyday...
's 1960 film
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is considered one of the best of the many attempts to film
Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
's classic. Both Hodges and his co-star as Jim,
Archie MooreArchie Moore, born Archibald Wright , was light heavyweight world boxing champion between 1952 and 1959 and had one of the longest professional careers in the history of his sport. A native of Benoit, Mississippi, raised in St...
, received generally positive reviews for their performances. He also appeared in the 1963 Disney film
Summer MagicSummer Magic is a Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, and Dorothy McGuire in a story about a Boston widow and her children taking up residence in a small town in Maine. The film was based on a book by Kate Douglas Wiggin and was directed by James Neilson...
.
Guest appearances on network TV productions included
BonanzaBonanza is an American television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons, it is among the longest running Western television series and continues to air in syndication....
,
GunsmokeGunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
,
Cimarron StripCimarron Strip is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from September 1967 to March 1968. Starring Stuart Whitman as Marshal Jim Crown, the series was produced by the creators of Gunsmoke....
and
The Dick Van Dyke ShowThe Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom which initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 and ran until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. A three-camera/studio audience format was used during production...
, among others. He was also a Mystery Guest on
What's My Line?What's My Line? is a weekly panel game show, which ran from 1950 to 1967, whose objective was to guess the unusual occupations of contestants. It is the longest-running game show in the history of prime time network television...
Recording career
At the age of 14, Hodges recorded for
Cadence RecordsCadence Records was an American record company based in New York City. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952...
and his biggest hit was "
I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door"I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door", written by Aaron Schroeder and Sid Wayne, is a song that was a originally released by the The Isley Brothers in 1959 and became hit for teenage actor Eddie Hodges in 1961. It peaked at #12 at Billboard Hot 100...
" in 1961. He also scored a minor hit with "(Girls, Girls, Girls) Made to Love," a song written by Phil Everly and originally recorded by
The Everly BrothersThe Everly Brothers are brothers and country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing. The Everlys are the most successful U.S...
. He recorded for several other record labels. Before he left Hollywood, he was a union musician, record producer, song writer and music publisher. He collaborated with
Tandyn AlmerTandyn Almer is a musician, composer, lyricist, and record producer, most famous for writing the song "Along Comes Mary", the 1966 hit by the Association. He released a single of his own called "Degeneration Gap" in 1969, has written or co-written numerous songs performed by other artists,...
("Along Comes Mary") with whom he wrote and published several songs and owned his own music publishing business. Hodges continues to write songs today but is no longer involved in the music business.
Personal life
Hodges was drafted into the Army during the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
in the late 1960s. After he was discharged, he returned to Hollywood and became disillusioned with show business. He decided to return to his native Mississippi and entered the
The University of Southern MississippiThe University of Southern Mississippi, officially known as Southern Miss, is a large public research university located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi...
where he received his B.A. in
PsychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
and an M.S. in Counseling. He became and is still a mental health counselor. He is divorced and has two grown children and three grandchildren. He occasionally gets in touch with his old show business friends and still writes songs. Hodges rode out
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States...
in 2005 and informed his fans that he was fine after being missing for 19 days when the utilities were restored.
External links