Although not in the movie "Dead End" (1937), Gorcey was eventually cast in Universal Pictures' Little Tough Guys, an offshoot of the Dead End Kids. He later joined brother Leo in Monogram Pictures' East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys series. For five years he was credited as "David Condon" (or in one instance, "David Conden"), using his mother's maiden name to avoid accusations of nepotism. During World War II he served in the US Army. He reverted to his real name in 1957. He occasionally appeared apart from the gang, in such films as "Sergeant Madden" (1939), "The Babe Ruth Story" (1948), and "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" (1950).