Lucille Ball’s Former Co-Star Dies at 101: Family Confirms Passing of Tommy Dix

Tommy Dix has died. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor, who starred alongside Lucille Ball in the 1943 MGM musical comedy Best Foot Forward, died on Jan. 15 at 101, his family announced.

“He was, for those who knew him well, a living link with some of the great American personalities of the 20th century. He will be missed,” they said.

Born as Thomas Paine Navard in New York on Dec. 6, 1923, he was raised by his single mom, Anna, and had some “serious health issues,” per the obituary. During the 1930s, he sang at local venues around his neighborhood, making appearances on NBC and CBS radio shows. Dix performed for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air when he was 15 but was too young to qualify. He was later invited to return as a guest star. He received a four-year scholarship at the Manhattan High School of Music and Art and was offered a fellowship at the Juilliard School of Music.

Dix made his Broadway debut in The Corn Is Green with Ethel Barrymore and landed the part of cadet Chuck Green in Best Foot Forward, directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Gene Kelly. MGM turned the musical into a movie starring Ball, and released in 1943. Instead of playing Chuck, Dix would up portraying Bud Hooper. The film would be just one of two that Dix would star in, as he also did the 1944 George B. Seitz-directed comedy Andy Hardy’s Blonde Trouble.

In 1943, Tommy Dix entered the U.S. Army, making appearances in uniform to sell $3 million worth of war bonds in the U.S. south after an injury in training left him unfit for field duty. After War World II, he would perform in nightclubs and hotels across the country and soon after signing a deal with Coronet Records, he quit show business. He later got a job at his father-in-law’s lumberyard in Birmingham, Alabama, and went on to become vice president of the company, also earning an associate degree in architectural engineering from the University of Alabama. On top of that, he was involved in real estate and construction in Maryland and Florida before eventually retiring in 1986.

Dix is survived by his “sweetheart,” Catherine; his son, Grayson; a grandson; and multiple nieces, nephews, and cousins. “Tommy was a superb conversationalist and a kind and gentle man,” his obituary reads. “He was, for those who knew him well, a living link with some of the great American personalities of the 20th century. He will be missed.”