Bob Anderson - Young George Bailey

It was announced over the weekend that Mr. Bob Anderson died, who you will remember as Bobby Anderson, the boy who played young George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

Mr. Anderson had bit parts in other notable films of the era, including “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945), “The Bishop’s Wife” (1947) and “Samson and Delilah” (1949). According to the IMDb website, his last role on camera was in the Disney serial “The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty” (1956). Those of you who remember the “Triple R” song (“Way up there on the Triple R, Yippee-ay, Yippeeo/The horses there are the best by far, Yippee-ay, Yippeeo”) may now sing.

In after years Bob Anderson worked in production behind the camera, but because of that role as young George, who saved a family from getting the wrong medicine at the hands of the distraught druggist, Mr. Gower, and getting slapped around for it, Anderson enjoys a sentimental immortality. It’s true what our teachers told us. Things we do at 12 years old remain on our Permanent Record.

For more on the life and career of Bob Anderson, see this obituary.