Thomas Beck; Screen Actor in 1930s

Thomas Beck, 86, who played the juvenile lead in several Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films in the 1930s. He was the village priest opposite Shirley Temple in the 1937 film “Heidi.” He also played a soldier who died in Ronald Colman’s arms in “Under Two Flags.” Beck started as a stage actor in New York and appeared in dozens of films from 1934 to 1939, most of them for 20th Century Fox. He was an infantryman in World War II, and worked in advertising after the war. On Sept. 23 of heart disease in Miami Shores, Fla.