Eddie Hodges

American actor and singer

Samuel "Eddie" Hodges (born March 5, 1947) is an American former child actor and recording artist (his 1961 cover of The Isley Brothers' “I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door” reached #1 in Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden and Australia, and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100), who left show business as an adult.

Hodges was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States, and introduced the song "Gary, Indiana", with Robert Preston and Pert Kelton.

He made his film debut in the 1959 film A Hole in the Head with Frank Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson, in which Hodges and Sinatra performed the Oscar winning song "High Hopes". On October 4, 1957, the day the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite, Hodges made a memorable appearance on the game show Name That Tune in which he partnered with then Major (and future astronaut and United States senator) John Glenn in an event dramatised in the 1983 motion picture The Right Stuff where Hodges is played by child actor Erik Bergmann. In 1963, Hodges played a supporting role as Billy Jones opposite fellow child actor Kevin Corcoran in Johnny Shiloh which originally aired as two episodes of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. In the early 1990s, the adult Hodges appeared live on a talk show on Swedish TV, where he played guitar and sang "I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door".

Hodges issued his first single in 1958, a duet with Julia Meade called "What Would It Be Like In Heaven?" In 1959 at age 12, Hodges became Mississippi's first Grammy Award winner for his contribution to the original Broadway cast album of The Music Man, on which he sang a solo ("The Wells Fargo Wagon") and was credited as lead singer on the song "Gary, Indiana". It was the first year the Grammys were awarded. In 1961 at age 14, Hodges recorded his biggest hit for Cadence Records, "I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door". He became a mental health counselor and eventually retired from practice after a long career in the field. He converted to Catholicism in 1998. He is divorced and has two grown children as well as six grandchildren. He occasionally gets in touch with his old show business friends and still writes songs, though he is unable to play guitar due to spinal nerve injuries. Hodges survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and informed his fans that he was fine after being without water, electricity and telephone/Internet contact for 19 days until the utilities were finally restored.