
Acting
Born April 1, 1923 · Harrison, New York, USA
Though he was the youngest, Jordan was the first of the boys who made up the Dead End Kids to work in films with a role in a 1933 Universal short. In 1935, he became one of the original Dead End Kids by winning the role of Angel in Sydney Kingsley's Broadway drama Dead End about life in the slums of the east side of New York City. The play was performed at the Belasco Theatre and ran for three years with over 600 performances. He appeared for the first season and the beginning of the second but left in mid-November 1936. He returned in time to join the others in 1937 in Hollywood, California to make the movie version of the play, starring big names such as Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, and Claire Trevor. Following the making of Dead End, Jordan found himself "released" from his contract at Goldwyn, and, subsequently, he appeared at Warner Brothers with the rest of the Dead End Kids. After one year, Warners released most of them, but kept Leo Gorcey and Jordan as solo performers. Jordan appeared (as "Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom") in Warner's Damon Runyon comedy A Slight Case of Murder (1938) and at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Young Tom Edison (1940). In 1940, Jordan appeared in the film Military Academy and accepted an offer from producer Sam Katzman to star in a new tough-kid series called "The East Side Kids." Leo Gorcey soon joined him, then Huntz Hall, and the trio continued to lead the series through 1943, when Jordan entered the United States Army during World War II as a foot soldier in the 97th Infantry Division. He was subsequently involved in an elevator accident, when the elevator fell five floors, that forced him to have surgery to remove his right kneecap.

Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook
1991

Classic Comedy Teams
1986

The Man Is Armed
1956

High Tor
1956

The Matchmaking Marshal
1955

The Eddie Cantor Story
1953

Secret of Outlaw Flats
1953

Treasure of Monte Cristo
1949

Bowery Buckaroos
1947

News Hounds
1947

Hard Boiled Mahoney
1947

The Beginning or the End
1947

Mr. Hex
1946

Spook Busters
1946

Bowery Bombshell
1946

In Fast Company
1946

Live Wires
1946

Bowery Champs
1944

Adventures of the Flying Cadets
1943

Destroyer
1943

Ghosts on the Loose
1943

Clancy Street Boys
1943

Keep 'Em Slugging
1943

Kid Dynamite
1943

Junior Army
1942

'Neath Brooklyn Bridge
1942

Smart Alecks
1942

Let's Get Tough
1942

Mr. Wise Guy
1942

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4
1942

Spooks Run Wild
1941

Bowery Blitzkrieg
1941

Flying Wild
1941

Give Us Wings
1940

Pride of the Bowery
1940

That Gang of Mine
1940

Military Academy
1940

You're Not So Tough
1940

Boys of the City
1940

Young Tom Edison
1940

On Dress Parade
1939

Dust Be My Destiny
1939

Angels Wash Their Faces
1939

Hell's Kitchen
1939

They Made Me a Criminal
1939

Off the Record
1939

Swingtime in the Movies
1938

Angels with Dirty Faces
1938

My Bill
1938

Reformatory
1938

Crime School
1938

A Slight Case of Murder
1938

Dead End
1937

Kid Millions
1934