Walter Tetley’s Birth Year

Brian,

The 1923 birth date theory is interesting, and more logical, given Tetley’s appearance in his 30’s movies. However, I still believe his real birth year was 1915. Check out the entry for Walter Tetley in the Social Security Death Index at Ancestry.com. Although a mistake could’ve been made on a death certificate, it’s not likely that the social security records would also be wrong. And why would a doctor who was treating him in his final days put 1915 as his birth date when completing the birth certificate? Surely he must have known his true age if he were treating him for a terminal illness. There’s no reason that I can think of for Walter to give the doctor an older age.

Since there is legal documentation to support the 1915 birth year, I would like to suggest that it was necessary for Walter to represent himself as 14 or 15 years old in order to get juvenile parts in movies, and that he used the 1923 birth date during that time so that he could more easily work alongside the other juvenile actors of the day. This was, after all, the 1930’s, and it was probably necessary to do this to get those movie roles.

Of course, this is just my educated guess and if proven wrong, I will eat crow.

Don

I tried your website above and had no luck. But then I have not received some of the things, that you have mailed to me, which would facilitate this search, I guess. If you read the two or more emails, that Jonathan has sent us (about the possibility of 1923 as the correct birthdate), it can’t be denied that he makes some good points. However, I tend to agree more with you about the 1915 date. I feel this way, in part, because of what I had previously mentioned to Jonathan, about Tetley’s physical/medical history.

There is another part of me, which just kind of hopes that the 1915 year is true, because that makes him all the more REMARKABLE!…….That even well into his 50s, and near 60, he still had that special talent of being able to speak like a small boy.

Despite the normal wear and tear, on his vocal cords, as he aged, and despite the fact that he had hormonal treatment, which not only increased his stature, but gave his body the ability to grow facial hair, his puerile, little voice remained in tact!………And of course, I don’t think that any of us know if he smoked………If he did smoke……..you know what cigarettes have done to some people’s voices (Bette Davis, for example, who was a heavy smoker).

On the other hand, perhaps “voice” actors, are less apt to smoke, since their livelihood depends on a strong, healthy voice (or perhaps they are prone to quit that habit, if they do smoke). Daws Butler told me, in 1974, that he had quit smoking, 20 years earlier, after his doctor had told him:

“Either quit smoking, or learn to drive a truck!…..Because you’re not going to make it, as the kind of actor that you are, because your whole bag is versatility!”.

Pardon me for getting off on a tangent, a bit. If my line of thought is somewhat hard to follow here, I’m sorry. Hopefully, however, some of the things, that I have said here, are interesting food for thought.

Back to my original point, however, I think that I am hoping that he was born in 1915, for another reason than simply the fact that that made his versatility more remarkable. I am also hoping that 1915 was the year, because that would give him close to a decade, more, of life on this earth.

Brian

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