Tom Goldrup

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 (1969), 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 and Golden Crow Theater. Tom has also worked in bit parts in several films made in the Santa Cruz area and performed as the hit-man "Otto" in Powdermoon Productions 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 (these four books have been reprinted by BearManor Media under a three volume set titled "Encyclopedia of Feature Players of Hollywood"). He and his brother Jim also write a column for Boyd Magers' periodical, "Western Clippings." 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. In 2003 Tom appeared on stage as the character "Angelo" in Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors". He retired for several years from the stage and spent his time writing and traveling to various parts of the world like Peru, India and Turkey. From September 2009 until through April 2010, Tom has appeared in ten stage productions including roles in The Grapes of Wrath (Grandpa Joad); It's a Wonderful Life (Uncle Billy); The House of Fear (Major Sholto); Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (Skull / Sebastioan Sly); and The After Christmas Carol (Ebenezer Scrooge). He is also a partner (with his brothers Ray Goldrup and Jim Goldrup) in the film production Company (Wolfwind Productions). Tom continued appearing on stage in the Santa Cruz, California area appearing in Diary of Anne Frank (as Mr. Van Daan), It's a Wonderful Life (as Mr. Potter), Miracle on 34th Street (Dr. Pierce), and in February 2014 as Mr. Gloss, the highwayman, in Beaux Stratagem. He also appeared in Season Two and Three of the web series Rabbit Ears in the running role of Prospector Pete. In October 2014 Tom appeared on stage in Monty Python's Spamalot and has said that will be his swan song treading the boards. Since then he has appeared as Friar Laurence in a 45 minute film version of Romeo and Juliet, and in January 2015 Tom performed in his first University of California Santa Cruz Student Short film, Dear Dr. Alois A., followed in January of 2016 in the Student Short film, Julianne's Exhibit, and in May of 2016 in his third student film titled Assemblage Point. In the summer of 2016 he appeared in the Wolfwind Productions feature film, "The Last Bell -- The First of Many" in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in August was in another episode of Rabbit Ears that was partially filmed on location in Odessa and Kyiv, Ukraine. Tom returned to the stage in 2018 (playing The Soothsayer and Third Citizen in Julius Caesar & as Jim Duncan in Miracle on 34th Street); 2019 (The Stranger in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard) and in 2020 in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", opening March 13th and closing the same night due to the covid-19 virus closing down all the theaters). His latest motion picture was The Fighting Preacher and latest television was three productions filmed for the local Santa Cruz television.