[3] Over the next fifteen years he appeared in almost two dozen productions on the Great White Way, including Nocturne (1925), The Butter and Egg Man (1925–26), Elmer Gantry (1928), The Petrified Forest (1935) and Our Town (1938).

[1] He made his film debut with a small role in 1939's I Stole a Million, which stars George Raft and Claire Trevor.

In the 1940s he appeared in other films such as the Bob Hope comedy, My Favorite Blonde (1942);[8] Pardon My Sarong (1942), starring Abbott and Costello;[9] The Naughty Nineties (1945), again starring Abbott and Costello;[10] the film noir, The Big Sleep (1946), starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall;[11] and director Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), where Fadden portrayed the tollhouse keeper on the bridge, who reacts to Clarence's (the angel) explanation of who he is to George Bailey (James Stewart).

Tom Fadden bore more than a passing resemblance to familiar character player Irving Bacon, and in time they both wound up playing similar mild-mannered roles.

[1] His final acting credit was the 1977 science fiction horror film, Empire of the Ants, starring Joan Collins.