[1] Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, and attended Peabody High School.

Educated in dramatics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he became a brother of Sigma Chi, Toomey began as a stock actor and eventually made it to Broadway.

He played Sergeant Les Hart, one of the detectives assisting the murder investigations of the millionaire police captain Amos Burke.

He guest-starred on dozens of television programs, including the popular "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" episode of ABC's Maverick.

Toomey died at age 93 on October 12, 1991, while in residence at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California.