BILLY BENEDICT
April 16th, 1917 -- November 25th, 1999

Above: A publicity portrait of William "Billy" Benedict, taken during his tenure with the Bowery Boys.

Combining the impudence of Eddie Acuff with the happy-go-luckiness of Big Boy Williams, Billy Benedict was a perfect "Everyman" sidekick. With his perpetually boyish face, shock of wild hair, and ever-ready vocabulary of colorful slang, he always came off as a hapless but self-possessed character. Benedict was an expert in the art of comedy, both physical and verbal, as he showed when he joined the Bowery Boys comedy team in his post-cliffhanger years. He brought real flair and humor to the serials he appeared in, giving audiences a sidekick to laugh with rather than at.

Benedict was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and studied drama and dancing while in high school. According to one story, he started out as a banker's clerk but was fired when he refused to comb his unmanageable crop of hair. At any rate, he hitch-hiked to Hollywood in 1934, and at first tried to make it as a dancer. He decided acting was his true profession, though, and made his screen debut in something called $10 DOLLAR RAISE in 1935. Billy, due to his youthful appearance and "golly, gee-whiz," type delivery, was quickly typecast as flippant bellboys, chipper delivery boys, wiseguy jockeys, and so forth. Oddly, his first serial role was a contrast to his earlier parts: the relatively "straight" role of a Corporal of the Ivory Patrol in TIM TYLER'S LUCK (Universal, 1937). However, he still managed to infuse the character (nicknamed "Spud") with some of his typical effervescence. The Ivory Patrol was a group of rangers whose job was to battle ivory poachers led by the evil "Spider" Webb (Norman Willis). The Patrol also provided young Tim Tyler (Frankie Thomas) with valuable help as he searched for his scientist father, who had been kidnapped by Webb after discovering the Elephants' Graveyard.

Above, from left to right: Jack Mulhall, two members of the Ivory Patrol, Billy Benedict, and two more patrolmen pose for action in TIM TYLER'S LUCK (Universal, 1937).

Billy joined the "Little Tough Guys", one of the many variants of the "Dead End Kids" in 1938, as a character named "Trouble." He continued in this role throughout the late thirties, and returned to serials in 1940 with Republic's all-time classic ADVENTURES OF RED RYDER. Oddly, he was once again given a non-comic role; he played Dan Withers, a hot-headed young rancher, who, along with his father (Ed Cassidy) was gunned down mercilessly by bad guys led by Bob Kortman in the first chapter. He finally hit his stride in serials with ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (Republic, 1941). The serial cast Frank Coghlan Jr., a life-long friend of Benedict's, as Billy Batson, a young boy who is given the power to turn into the mighty Captain Marvel (Tom Tyler) in order to protect the world from the Scorpion, a masked criminal who is after the Golden Scorpion, an ancient atom-smashing device found in a Siamese tomb. Benedict was Whitey Murphy, Batson's pal and sidekick, who is unaware that Coghlan and Captain Marvel are one and the same, but who does his best to help both of them battle the Scorpion. Benedict provided riotous but unobtrusive comic relief throughout the cliffhanger, and helped to make it one of Republic's finest.

Above: Edward Cassidy tries to help the dying Billy Benedict in ADVENTURES OF RED RYDER (Republic, 1940).

Above: Tom Tyler, as Captain Marvel, destroys the Golden Scorpion as John Davidson, Louise Currie, Billy Benedict, and assorted Siamese watch in the last chapter of ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (Republic, 1941).

Above: Frank Coghlan Jr., Louise Currie, and William Benedict in ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (Republic, 1941).

Benedict reteamed with the Dead End Kids for his next serial, JUNIOR G-MEN OF THE AIR (Universal, 1942), in which he once again played a character named "Whitey." He was one of a bunch of young street kids who did their best to help their country during World War 2 by battling the schemes of Japanese spy the Baron (Lionel Atwill) and his "Black Dragonfly" society. His second and last Republic serial was made the same year: PERILS OF NYOKA, which introduced both Kay Aldridge and Clayton Moore to serial stardom. The serial was set in Africa, in the desert regions, where an expedition, headed by physician Moore and archeologist Forbes Murray, was seeking the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates. Aldridge was Nyoka Gordon, daughter of a scientist who had vanished years before seeking the tablets. Nyoka joined the expedition in hopes of locating her father, and the whole group was forced to continually battle the Arab queen Vultura (Lorna Gray) who coveted the lost treasure hidden with the tablets. Billy was Red Davis, the expedition mechanic and general all-around handyman, and he once again provided high-quality comedy both with his own slang-filled wisecracks (which seemed hilariously incongruous in the Arabian setting) and his interplay with his pet monkey Jitters.

Above, from left to right: Prof. Campbell (Forbes Murray), Prof. Spencer (George Pembroke), Prof. Gordon (Robert Strange), Nyoka Gordon (Kay Aldridge), Dr. Larry Grayson (Clayton Moore), and "Red" Davis (Billy Benedict) in PERILS OF NYOKA (Republic, 1942).

Above: Billy Benedict strikes a cute pose with his pet monkey Jitters (played by "Professor") in a publicity still for PERILS OF NYOKA (Republic, 1942).

Billy stayed with the Dead End Kids when they switched their name to the "East Side Kids" in the early forties; his character name in the series became "Skinny." He once again joined some of the group for ADVENTURES OF THE FLYING CADETS (Universal, 1943). The cadets of the title were four young American air force cadets--Johnny Downs as Danny, Bobby Jordan as "Jinx", Bob Wood as "Scrapper", and Billy as "Zombie"-- who were accused of a group of murders actually committed by the Axis spy known as the Black Hangman. The man behind the Hangman's mask was American engineer Gault (Robert Armstrong), who wanted to remove all those who knew of the existence of a cache of helium in Africa which he intended to sell to Nazis. The quartet of youngsters trailed Von Heiger (Eduardo Cianelli), a Gestapo agent in collusion with Gault, to Africa, where they attempted to stop him and the Hangman from stealing the helium deposits. Billy’s final serial was BRENDA STARR, REPORTER (Columbia, 1945). He played an eccentric and forgetful newspaper copy boy named Pesky and provided excellent comic relief (along with Syd Saylor) throughout the serial. He was also instrumental in solving the serial’s primary mystery in the final chapter, and as a result was rewarded with the elusive bonus that Saylor had been trying for throughout the serial.

Above: Billy Benedict (left) and Johnny Downs make a impromptu stand against Nazi agents in this lobby card from ADVENTURES OF THE FLYING CADETS (Universal, 1943), Billy's final cliffhanger.

Benedict continued to ply his trade of comedian after he left the serial world. Around 1946, he rejoined the Dead End Kids (now reincarnated as the more overtly comic Bowery Boys) for a series of low-budget but very successful slapstick adventures that remain popular to this day. On leaving the series in 1951, Billy began to make fewer screen appearances, concentrating on a career as a special effects/miniatures worker. He kept appearing in films into the early 1980's, still playing newsboys and telegraph boys, though now in his sixties. He retired in 1981, and became a beloved guest at film fairs--both serial and comedy conventions. The scrappy, good-natured little guy passed away in 1999, mourned by everyone who had watched him on screen or had had the pleasure of meeting him.

Billy Benedict added an extra quality to every single cliffhanger he appeared in. This may seem like an exaggeration, but stop and think for a minute what CAPTAIN MARVEL would have been like without Whitey, or NYOKA without Red. There simply was no more funny or lovable sidekick than Billy. His alert but easy-going bearing stole nearly every scene he appeared in with ease, and kept us serial fans in a constant state of enjoyment.