Editing Billy Halop (section)

==Acting career==
In 1933, he was given the lead as Bobby Benson in the popular new radio show ''[[Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders|The H-Bar-O Rangers]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.otrsite.com/articles/artjf002.html|title=Bobby Benson|website=www.otrsite.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Barnouw|first=Erik|title=Media Marathon|publisher=Duke University Press|year=1996|pages=47–58}}</ref> From 1934 to 1937, he starred in one of his first radio series, playing Dick Kent, the son of Fred and Lucy Kent, in "Home Sweet Home".<ref>{{citation |last=Cox |first=Jim |title= The A to Z of American Radio Soap Operas|date=17 July 2009 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ll_N4vRK6tcC&pg=PA103 | page=103|isbn=9780810863491 }}</ref>

While studying at the Professional Children's School<ref name="NYT" /> in New York, he was cast as Tommy Gordon in the 1935 Broadway production of [[Sidney Kingsley]]'s ''Dead End''<ref>{{citation |title= The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, Volume 1| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qYfH1tOwsHcC&pg=PA334 | page=334|isbn = 9780231144223|last1 = Cody|first1 = Gabrielle H.|last2 = Sprinchorn|first2 = Evert|year = 2007}}</ref> and traveled to Hollywood with the rest of the [[Dead End Kids]] when [[Samuel Goldwyn]] produced a [[Dead End (1937 film)|film version of the play]] in 1937. Usually called Tommy in the films, he had the recurring role of a gang leader in a series of films that featured the [[Dead End Kids]], later billed the [[Little Tough Guys]]. 

In his later years, he claimed that he was paid more than the other Dead End actors, which had contributed to bad feelings in the group, and that he was tired of the name "Dead End Kids". He played with [[James Cagney]] in ''[[Angels with Dirty Faces]]'' (1938). He played the bully [[Harry Flashman]], speaking with an English accent, in the 1940 film ''[[Tom Brown's School Days (1940 film)|Tom Brown's School Days]]'' opposite [[Cedric Hardwicke]] and [[Freddie Bartholomew]].

After serving in [[World War II]] in the US Army Signal Corps, he found that he had grown too old to be effective in the roles that had brought him fame. At one point, he was reduced to starring in a cheap [[East Side Kids]] imitation at PRC studios, ''[[Gas House Kids]]'' (1946), at age 26. Diminishing film work, marital difficulties, and a drinking problem eventually ate away at his show business career.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}

In the 1970s, Halop enjoyed a career resurgence playing the character Bert Munson, cab driver and close friend to Archie Bunker on the television series ''[[All in the Family]]''. He appeared in 10 episodes from 1971 to 1975, including the famed "Sammy's Visit" episode from the second season in 1972 starring [[Sammy Davis Jr.]]