In 1937, Samuel Goldwyn made the popular play into a film of the same name, and transported the six rowdy young men to Hollywood.

The earlier films presented Gorcey in variations of his Dead End character Spit, a sneering tough guy meeting anyone's challenge with a wisecracking remark.

In the early 1940s, as the dramatic films shifted to roughneck comedy, Gorcey embellished his dialogue with malapropisms, always delivered in a thick Brooklyn accent.

A studio press release reported that Gorcey spent 30 minutes a day studying a dictionary: "He has made something of a career for himself as an actor by the use of words no one else has ever heard of, and by the misuse or mispronunciation of others.

"[3] In 1944, Gorcey took a recurring role on the Pabst Blue Ribbon Town radio show, starring Groucho Marx.

He also had a small role in a 1948 film, the comedy So This Is New York, starring radio comedians Henry Morgan and Arnold Stang, which was Gorcey's last appearance as a straight character actor.

In 1945, Sam Katzman, producer of the East Side Kids series, flatly refused to meet Gorcey's demand of double his usual salary.

In 1967, Gorcey self-published an autobiography, An Original Dead-End Kid Presents: Dead End Yells, Wedding Bells, Cockle Shells, and Dizzy Spells, which was limited to 1,000 copies.

He was arrested for firing a gun at his wife when she entered his home in Van Nuys, California, but was acquitted of the charge in 1948.

[5] In February 1949, Gorcey married actress Amelita Ward, with whom he had appeared in Clancy Street Boys and Smugglers' Cove.