Biography: Tom, son of Eugene and Fernita (McKillop) Goldrup, was born 1942 in Palo Alto, California, and raised in the historic town of Sonoma in that state. He made his acting debut in the role of Mr. Gibbs in his Sonoma, California high school play of "Arsenic and Old Lace", and continued on at Santa Rosa Junior College in productions including "She Loves Me", "Major Barbara". Following college, Tom worke ... show all Tom, son of Eugene and Fernita (McKillop) Goldrup, was born 1942 in Palo Alto, California, and raised in the historic town of Sonoma in that state. He made his acting debut in the role of Mr. Gibbs in his Sonoma, California high school play of "Arsenic and Old Lace", and continued on at Santa Rosa Junior College in productions including "She Loves Me", "Major Barbara". Following college, Tom worked with his screenwriter brother Ray Goldrup and actor brother Jim Goldrup in their own film production of "Vision of a Poet" in which Tom played the poet. Following a bit part in "Five Bloody Graves (1970)", filmed in Capitol Reef National Monument in Utah, Tom made his way to Hollywood and obtained an agent and attended the Ivor Francis acting workshop. After working in a CBS Playhouse ("Sadbird"), acting roles were hard to come by so he wrote a screenplay titled "Kelsey", with brothers Ray and Jim. Nothing came of this, but Ray went on to make a career writing for television and motion pictures. Tom left Hollywood in 1971 and settled in Santa Cruz County, California, where he has acted in a number of stage productions, including work with the noted Shakespeare Santa Cruz company. He and brother Jim also co-produced and acted in several of their own productions (one being a play titled "The Last Bell" written by brother Ray), as well as with Mountain Community Theater. Tom has also worked in bit parts in several films made in the Santa Cruz area ("Out On A Limb", "Sudden Impact", etc) and performed as the hit-man Otto in an unreleased film titled "The Magdaburg Affair" which was shot in 1988 in Utah. Tom and his three brothers became well aware of many of the feature players when they were growing up in the 1950s, with Ray and Tom being presidents of the official Don C. Harvey Fan Club. Years later (beginning in 1983) Tom and Jim began writing a four volume series of books titled "Feature Players: Stories Behind the Faces", which were based on personal interviews with many of the actors and actresses of the Golden era of Hollywood. In 2002 they published their latest book, "Growing Up On The Set" (McFarland Publishing), which chronicled the lives and careers of 39 former child actors. Tom's latest stage performance was as the character "Angelo" in Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" (2003). hide |
