Introduction
Larry Lee Simms (1934 - 2009) was an American child actor active between 1937 and 1951.
Life and career
Larry Lee Simms was born on October 1, 1934, in Los Angeles, California.
Simms got an early start as a model and appeared in a 1937 Saturday Evening Post advertisement. A Hollywood talent scout noticed the advertisement and got him his first role in Edward Ludwig directed film The Last Gangster, in which Simms played Edward G. Robinson’s son.
Simms became known for his appearances as Alexander "Baby Dumpling" Bumstead in the popular Blondie film series starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake.
Between 1938 and the end of the series in 1950, Simms appeared as Alexander in 28 films earning at one point $750 a week. In 1946, Simms joined the cast of the Blondie radio program, portraying Alexander there as he had in movies.
He occasionally acted outside of the Blondie series, most notably in two Frank Capra films. He played one of the sons of Governor Hopper (Guy Kibbee) in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Pete Bailey, the oldest son of James Stewart's George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
Simms continued to work in show business until his last film Her First Romance, in 1951. He then retired from the film industry to join the Navy. He then also studied aeronautical engineering at California Polytech. After a spell in the U.S. Navy, he worked as an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California until his retirement.
After his first retirement, he migrated to Saudi Arabia where he worked at Arabian-American Oil Company refinery. Later, Simms was in charge of the implementation of the Telecommunications infrastructure for a Shell refinery in Rayong, Thailand. After his final retirement from work in Thailand, he and his wife remained in Thailand until his death.
Death
Simms died on 17 June 2009, at age 74, in Chon buri, Thailand.