2 VINTAGE CANDID APPROXIMATELY 4 3/8 X 3 1/2 INCH PHOTOGRAPHS FROM FEBRUARY 1922 OF JACKIE COOGAN WHEN HE WAS A CHILD ACTOR. (2 OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS OF FAMILY WHO TOOK PHOTOS)
John Leslie Coogan (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor and comedian who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films.
Charlie Chaplins film classic The Kid (1921) made him one of the first child stars in the history of Hollywood. He later sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers, the California Child Actors Bill, widely known as the Coogan Act. Coogan continued to act throughout his life, later earning renewed fame in middle age portraying bumbling Uncle Fester in the 1960s television series The Addams Family.
Jackie Coogan, who in 1919 became the first major child star in American movie history as the sad-eyed foundling in The Kid, died after a heart attack yesterday at the Santa Monica (Calif.) Hospital. He was 69 years old and lived in Palm Springs, Calif.
Mr. Coogan, who charmed a later generation as Uncle Fester on the television series The Addams Family, was taken to the hospitals emergency room shortly before noon, said a hospital spokesman, Mary Isaacs. He died two hours later.
For several years in the 1920s, he was the most famous boy in America. In one popularity poll, he topped Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks.
I had the flu in New York, and it pushed the President of the United States off the front pages, he said in an interview in 1972.
After making his stage debut at the age of 16 months, he earned between $2 million and $4 million before he was out of short pants. Spotted by Chaplin
At the age of 4, he was spotted on a Hollywood vaudeville stage by Charlie Chaplin, who gave him a $75-a-week role in The Kid. When the film was finished, he received a $5,000 bonus. Then came Pecks Bad Boy at $1,000 a week, followed by a $500,000 Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer contract with a clause guaranteeing him 60 percent of the profits from such pictures as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
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John Leslie Coogan Jr. was born in Los Angeles, and by the time he was 13 he had been to New York 18 times, most often traveling in his private railroad car.
Normal boy? he said in the 1972 interview. How would I know what a normal boy would do? When I was 7, we bought a big house at the corner of Wilshire and Western and put in one of the earliest swimming pools in Southern California.
Being who I was, I had the best swimming instructor - Duke Kahanamoku - the year after he won the Olympics. I surfed from Baja California to San Francisco when there were only 9 or 10 surfers on the entire Pacific Coast. I drank milk from my own ranch. Other boys went to see Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth came to see me. Death of Father
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But his life unraveled months before his 21st birthday. After a day of dove hunting in Mexico, the car his father was driving was forced off the road. The young actor was badly bruised, and his father and three other passengers were killed.
Mr. Coogan said later that the rest of his life would have been different if his father had survived. The reason was money.
Of the millions he had made as a child star, all he had ever received was a weekly allowance of $6.25. When he turned 21, his mother, Lillian, and Arthur Bernstein, the family lawyer whom she had married, announced that they would not turn any of it over to him. The law is on our side, and Jackie Coogan will not get a cent from his past earnings, Mr. Bernstein declared at a news conference.
After a childhood of virtually unquestioning obedience, Mr. Coogan agonized for two years before deciding to file suit to recover the money. Blackballed by the Studios
It was the lowest point of my life, he said in 1972, because my stepfather was related to many people, and I was blackballed by the studios.
His anxiety was compounded by the disintegration of his first marriage, to a young starlet named Betty Grable. Eighteen months later, when the lawsuit was settled, he was left with only $35,000 - but with the knowledge that such a situation could not recur.
Forty-eight hours after I filed my suit, they rushed a new law through the Legislature, he said. The measure said that all juvenile actors earnings had to be deposited in court-administered trust funds.
Mr. Coogan became a stage actor in 1937 and estimated in 1966 that he had appeared in 35 silent films, 100 talkies and 850 television programs, including more than 65 episodes of The Addams Family. His Uncle Fester character in that series would stuff a light bulb in his mouth and make it glow. A Landing in Burma
In World War II, Mr. Coogan joined the Army as a flight officer and was the first glider pilot to land Allied troops behind the Japanese lines in Burma.
If you think the natives were surprised when our gliders landed, he said, you should have seen them when we opened up the mouth of one and drove out a jeep. He was later awarded the Air Medal for meritorious service.
After his divorce from Miss Grable, he married another actress, Flower Parry, in 1941. They were divorced two years later, and in 1946 he married Ann McCormick, from whom he was divorced in 1951. The following year, he married Dorothea Lamphere, a dancer, who was at his bedside when he died.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Anthony, of Los Angeles, and Chris, of Palm Springs; two daughters, Joan, of Los Angeles, and Leslie Franklin of Malibu, and two grandchildren.
Silent movie child star Jackie Coogan was born John Leslie Coogan Jr. on October 26th, 1914 in Los Angeles, California to a show business family. His father, John H. Coogan, had been born in Syracuse and worked in an apothecary and then in vaudeville as an actor and dancer, and his mother had been a child star on the stage. Shortly after Jackies birth the Coogans went east and it was in New York that Jackie made his first real appearance in the theater, at the age of four years. At age five he began touring with his family in vaudeville shows.
Charles Chaplin had long been planning a movie project called "The Kid", but had kept postponing his film because he could not find the right child actor to star opposite him. A friend of Chaplins knew of his ambition and thought of Jackie for the role. He brought Charlie down to the hotel where the Coogans were staying and introduced young Jackie to him. Chaplin was impressed and knew right away he had found the perfect youngster for his movie. To test Jackie, Chaplin gave him a small role in his film "A Days Pleasure" (1919), which proved that he had star quality. They then began filming Chaplins "The Kid" (1921), a memorable film in which the Little Tramp rescues and raises a street urchin named Jackie, eventually losing him. The movie effectively combined both pathos and humor and was a great success for Charlie and Jackie. Jackie went on to play a child in a number of popular films in the 1920s, such as "Pecks Bad Boy" (1921), "Oliver Twist" (1922) opposite Lon Chaney, and "The Rag Man" (1925 - recently restored and re-scored for Turner Classic Movies), and he continued to tour with his father on the stage. Although there were other child stars performing in films in the 1920s, Jackies career and stardom were the most heavily promoted during the decade. Magazines of the day depicted Jackie touring the world with his father, Jackie at birthday parties, Jackie posing in front of his expensive toys, his cars, his homes, etc. At the height of his career in the 1920s, he was one of the most highly paid performers in Hollywood, earning millions for the studios which hired him, including First National, Lesser, Universal, M-G-M, and for his own production company set up by his parents, called Jackie Coogan Productions.
Child star Jackie Coogan - goldensilents.com
By 1927, at the age of 13, Jackie Coogan had grown up on the screen and his career was starting to wind down as he aged and other child stars took hold of the publics fancy. He made sound versions of "Tom Sawyer" (1930) and Huckleberry Finn" (1931), but these movies were not as popular as his earlier films during the silent era. His personal family life was about to be thrust into turmoil as well. His parents divorced and his mother re-married Arthur Bernstein, who became Jackies business manager. In 1936, Jackies father died, along with his best friend, in a terrible automobile accident. Jackie had been in the car and was injured, but recovered. When he came of age he naturally wanted the money which he had earned making films as a child star, but his mother and his step-father refused his request. Jackie filed suit against them for the four million dollars that he had earned during those years. Under California Law at the time he had no rights to the money he made as a child, and he was eventually awarded only $126,000 in 1939! The public was outraged when they learned of the situation, and the California Legislature was pressured to pass the "Coogan Act", which would set up a trust fund for any child actor to protect his earnings.
Jackie Coogan as Fester in The Addams Family
Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester in "The Addams Family" in 1964
Jackie Coogan married four times and had four children. In 1937, he married actress Betty Grable, but the marriage lasted only three years. During World War Two Jackie served in the Army, then returned to Hollywood after the war. He worked in small budget movies, playing mostly bit parts. In the 1950s he began to find acting work on television. Almost broke by the 1960s, he suddenly hit his stride again, starring in two comedy television series, "McKeever and the Colonel", which ran from 1962-63, and the classic "The Addams Family", which ran from 1964-1966, in which he played funny, baldheaded Uncle Fester. In 1972 Jackie was reunited with his old friend Charlie Chaplin, who returned to the United States to accept an honorary Oscar. Jackie and a small crowd of well wishers met Charlie at the airport, and the frail Chaplin, upon recognizing Jackie, broke down, hugged him and whispered to him, "I think I would rather see you than anybody else." Jackie Coogan would continue making acting appearances in a number of television shows, commercials, and in a handful of movies, until his death from a heart attack on March 1st, 1984 in Santa Monica, California. ~ Copyright © 2004 goldensilents.com
Jackie Coogans Silent Films
Buttons (1927) .... Buttons
Bugle Call, The (1927) .... Billy Randolph
Johnny Get Your Hair Cut (1927) .... Johnny ODay
Old Clothes (1925) .... Timothy Kelly
Silent movie star Jackie Coogan - Golden Silents
Rag Man, The (1925) .... Tim Kelly
Hello Frisco (1924)
Little Robinson Crusoe (1924) .... Mickey Hogan
... aka Robinson Crusoe Jr. (1924)
Boy of Flanders, A (1924) .... Nello
Long Live the King (1923) .... Crown Prince Otto
Circus Days (1923) .... Toby Tyler
Daddy (1923) .... Jackie Savelli/Jackie Holden
Trouble (1922) .... Danny, the Kid
... aka Trouble, Keep Smiling (1922) (USA)
Oliver Twist (1922) .... Oliver Twist
My Boy (1921) .... Jackie Blair
Pecks Bad Boy (1921) .... Pecks Bad Boy (Henry Peck)
Kid, The (1921) .... The Kid
Days Pleasure, A (1919) .... Smallest Boy
... aka Ford Story, A (1919) (USA)
Skinners Baby (1917) (uncredited) .... The Baby
John Leslie Coogan (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor and comedian who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films.[2]
Charlie Chaplins film classic The Kid (1921) made him one of the first child stars in the history of Hollywood. He later sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers, the California Child Actors Bill, widely known as the Coogan Act.[3] Coogan continued to act throughout his life, later earning renewed fame in middle age portraying bumbling Uncle Fester in the 1960s television series The Addams Family.
Contents
1Early life and early career
1.1Coogan Bill
1.2Charity work
2Later years
2.1Film
2.2Radio
2.3World War II
2.4Television
3Marriages and children
4Death
5Filmography
6References
7Further reading
8External links
Early life and early career
Coogan as a child actor with Charlie Chaplin in The Kid (1921)
Coogan was born as John Leslie Coogan in 1914 in Los Angeles, California, to John Henry Coogan Jr. and Lillian Rita (Dolliver) Coogan.[1][4] He began performing as an infant in both vaudeville and film, with an uncredited role in the 1917 film Skinners Baby. Charlie Chaplin discovered him in the Orpheum Theatre, a vaudeville house in Los Angeles, on the stage doing the shimmy, a dance popular at the time. Coogans father was also an actor, as was Jackies younger brother, Robert Coogan.
Coogan was a natural mimic and delighted Chaplin with his abilities. Chaplin cast him in a small role in A Days Pleasure (1919). He was the abandoned child raised by Chaplin in The Kid (1921) and the following year played the title role in Oliver Twist, directed by Frank Lloyd. Coogan was one of the first stars to be heavily merchandised. Peanut butter, stationery, whistles, dolls, records, and figurines were among the Coogan-themed merchandise on sale. Coogan was tutored until the age of 10, when he entered Urban Military Academy and other prep schools. He attended several colleges, as well as the University of Southern California. In 1932, he dropped out of Santa Clara University because of poor grades.
In November 1933, 22-year-old Brooke Hart, a close friend of Coogan from Santa Clara University and heir to a successful department store in San Jose, was kidnapped as he drove his car out of a parking lot. After several demands for a $40,000 ransom were delivered to the family, police arrested Thomas Thurmond and Jack Holmes in San Jose. Thurmond admitted that he and Holmes had murdered Hart the same day he was kidnapped. Both killers were transferred to a jail in downtown San Jose. A mob broke into the jail, and Thurmond and Holmes were hanged from a tree in a nearby park, with the unapologetic approval of the states governor. Coogan was reported to be present and to have held the lynching rope.[5]
In 1935, 20-year-old Coogan was the sole survivor of a car crash in eastern San Diego County that killed his father; his best friend, 19-year-old actor Junior Durkin;[6] their ranch foreman, Charles Jones; and actor and writer Robert J. Horner. The party was returning from a day of dove hunting over the border in Mexico in early May. With his father at the wheel, the car was forced off the mountain highway near Pine Valley by an oncoming vehicle and rolled down an embankment.[7][8][9]
Coogan Bill
Main article: California Child Actors Bill
“Mr. and Mrs. Bernstein will never be serious contenders for the title of Mr. and Mrs. America.”
— New York Herald Tribune, 1938[10]
As a child star, Coogan earned an estimated $3 to $4 million. When he turned 21 in October 1935, his fortune was believed to be well intact. His assets had been conservatively managed by his father, who had died in the car accident five months earlier.[11]
However, Coogan found that the entire amount had been spent by his mother and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, on fur coats, diamonds and other jewelry, and expensive cars. Bernstein had been a financial advisor for the family and married Coogans mother in late 1936.[12] Coogans mother and stepfather claimed Jackie enjoyed himself and simply thought he was playing before the camera. She insisted, "No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything",[10] and claimed he "was a bad boy".[13] Coogan sued them in 1938,[12] but after his legal expenses, he received just $126,000 of the $250,000 remaining of his earnings. When he fell on hard times and asked Charlie Chaplin for assistance, Chaplin handed him $1,000 without hesitating.[14]
The legal battle focused attention on child actors and resulted in the 1939 enactment of the California Child Actors Bill, often referred to as the "Coogan Law" or the "Coogan Act". It required that a child actors employer set aside 15% of the earnings in a trust (called a Coogan account), and specified the actors schooling, work hours, and time off.[15]
Charity work
Coogan worked with Near East relief, he toured across the United States and Europe in 1924 on a "Childrens Crusade" as part of his fundraising drive, which provided more than $1 million in clothing, food, and other contributions (worth more than $13 million in 2012 dollars). He was honored by officials in the United States and Greece where he had an audience with Pope Pius XI.[16]
A Roman Catholic, Coogan was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills.[17]
Later years
Film
Coogan appeared with then-wife Betty Grable in College Swing, a 1938 musical comedy starring George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye and Bob Hope.
Radio
In 1940, Coogan played the role of "a playboy Broadway producer" in the Society Girl program on CBS radio.[18] He also starred in his own program, Forever Ernest, on CBS from April 29, 1946, to July 22, 1946.[19]
World War II
Coogan enlisted in the U.S. Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor that December, he requested a transfer to Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. Graduating the Advanced Glider School with the Glider Pilot aeronautical rating and the rank of Flight Officer,[20] he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group.[21]
In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. He flew British troops, the Chindits, under General Orde Wingate on March 5, 1944, landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles (160 km) behind Japanese lines in the Burma Campaign.[22][23]
Coogan in a publicity shot as the character Uncle Fester for The Addams Family TV series
Television
After the war, Coogan returned to acting, taking mostly character roles and appearing on television. From 1952 to 1953, he played Stoney Crockett on the syndicated series Cowboy G-Men. He guest-starred on NBCs The Martha Raye Show. He appeared too, as Corbett, in two episodes of NBCs 1960 series The Outlaws. In the 1960–1961 season, he guest-starred in the episode "The Damaged Dolls" of the crime drama The Brothers Brannagan. In 1961, he guest-starred in an episode of The Americans, an NBC series about family divisions stemming from the Civil War. He also appeared in episode 37, titled "Barney on the Rebound", of The Andy Griffith Show, which aired October 31, 1961. He had a regular role in a 1962–63 NBC series, McKeever and the Colonel. He finally found his most famous television role as Uncle Fester in ABCs The Addams Family (1964–1966). He appeared as a police officer in the Elvis Presley comedy Girl Happy in 1965.[24]
He appeared four times on the Perry Mason series, including the role of political activist Gus Sawyer in the 1963 episode, "The Case of the Witless Witness", and TV prop man Pete Desmond in the final episode, "The Case of the Final Fadeout", in 1966. He was a guest several times on The Red Skelton Show, appeared twice on The Brady Bunch ("The Fender Benders" and "Double Parked"), I Dream of Jeannie (as Jeannies uncle, Suleiman – Maharaja of Basenji), Family Affair, Heres Lucy and The Brian Keith Show, and continued to guest-star on television (including multiple appearances on The Partridge Family, The Wild Wild West, Hawaii Five-O, and McMillan and Wife) until his retirement in the middle 1970s. Coogan also appeared in the first season of Barnaby Jones; episode titled, "Sing a Song of Murder" (04/01/1973).
Marriages and children
Coogan was married four times, and had four children. His first three marriages to actresses were short-lived.[3] He and Betty Grable were engaged in 1935 and married on November 20, 1937,[25] [26][27] and they divorced less than two years later on October 11, 1939. Eighteen months later on August 10, 1941, he married Flower Parry (d.1981). They had one son, John Anthony Coogan (writer/producer of 3D digital and film), born March 4, 1942, in Los Angeles; they divorced on June 29, 1943.[28] Coogan married his third wife, Ann McCormack, on December 26, 1946;[29][30] a daughter, Joann Dolliver Coogan, was born April 2, 1948,[31] in Los Angeles. They divorced on September 20, 1951.[32][33][34]
Dorothea Odetta Hanson, also known as Dorothea Lamphere, best known as Dodie, was a dancer and became Coogans fourth wife in April 1952, and they were together over 30 years until his death. She died in 1999. They had two children together, a daughter, Leslie Diane Coogan, born November 24, 1953 in Los Angeles, and a son, Christopher Fenton Coogan, born July 9, 1967 in Riverside County, California, who died in a motorcycle accident in Palm Springs, California on June 29, 1990.[35][36]
Leslie Coogan has a son, actor Keith Coogan, who was born Keith Eric Mitchell on January 13, 1970. He began acting in 1975, and changed his name in 1986, two years after his grandfathers death. His roles include the oldest son in Adventures in Babysitting and Dont Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead.
Footage of Jackie with his grandson Keith can be seen in the 1982 documentary Hollywoods Children.
Death
Grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California
Coogans health in later years was seriously impaired by his chain smoking and alcoholism.[37] After suffering from heart and kidney ailments, Coogan died of heart failure on March 1, 1984, at age 69, in Santa Monica, California.[38] He had previously suffered several strokes and had been undergoing kidney dialysis when his blood pressure dropped. Coogan was taken to Santa Monica Hospital, where he died from cardiac arrest.[3]
At his request, Coogans funeral was open to the public and he was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.[39][40] His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 1654 Vine Street, just south of Hollywood Boulevard.[41]
This is the family of Jackie Coogan, the child actor. His
family settled in Onondaga County, NY (principally Syracuse) in
the early part of the 19th century. Initially, the family
worked for the railroad. Jackies grandfather, John Henry
Coogan, was one of the first to chose another profession -
druggist.
Jackies father was John Henry Coogan, JR, a vaudeville
performer. Together with his wife, Lillian Dolliver, he
attempted to enter the new Hollywood movie business (c.1910).
John Leslie Coogan (Jackie) was born in 1914. Even as a baby,
he accompanied his parents on several movie sets. Charlie
Chaplin was responsible for casting Jackie in his first major
movie - The Kid (1921).
After many movies as a child actor, Jackie entered adult life
with a startling realization - that his parents had squandered
his entire movie fortune! Following a highly publicized lawsuit
against his mother, Jackie was only able to regain a paltry
amount for all his years as a star. Lawmakers immediately set
to work to ensure that such a thing could never happen again,
creating the Child Actors Bill (the so-called Coogan Law) to
protect the careers of child stars and their money.
Jackie was a glider pilot in World War II and later appeared in
movies and on TV as an adult (most famously as Uncle Fester on
The Addams Family). He died in 1984.
This family has also been found as CAGAN and COOKEN.
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began their acting career as a child. To avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor. Closely associated is teenage actor or teen actor, an actor who reached popularity as a teenager.
Many child actors find themselves struggling to adapt as they become adults, mainly due to typecasting. Lindsay Lohan and Macaulay Culkin are two particular famous child actors who eventually experienced much difficulty with the fame they acquired at a young age. Many child actors also become successful adult actors as well, a prime example of this being Jodie Foster, who was 14 years old in the film Taxi Driver in 1976 and went on to become an adult star in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.
Contents
1Regulation
1.1California
1.2United Kingdom
2Issues
2.1Ownership of earnings
2.2Competitive pressure
3Post-success troubles
4Post-childhood success
4.1Other careers
5See also
6References
7External links
Regulation
In the United States, the activities of child actors are regulated by the governing labor union, if any, and state laws. Some projects film in remote locations specifically to evade regulations intended to protect the child. Longer work hours or risky stunts prohibited by California, for example, might be permitted to a project filming in British Columbia. US federal law "specifically exempted minors working in the Entertainment Business from all provisions of the Child Labor Laws." Any regulation of child actors is governed by disparate state laws.
California
Due to the large presence of the entertainment industry in California, it has some of the most explicit laws protecting child actors. Being a minor, a child actor must secure an entertainment work permit before accepting any paid performing work. Compulsory education laws mandate that the education of the child actor not be disrupted while the child is working, whether the child actor is enrolled in public school, private school or even home school. The child does his/her schoolwork under the supervision of a studio teacher while on the set.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, a child actor is defined as someone under school leaving age.[1] Before a child can work, they require a performance license from their Local Education Authority as well as a licensed chaperone; a parent can only chaperone their own child, unless they are a licensed chaperone, and a chaperones duties include acting in loco parentis and record arrival and departure time from the work place, the time a child is working, their breaks and the amount of tutoring.[1][2] A child requires three hours minimum of tutoring daily usine and a lesson must be a minimum of 30 minutes to count towards the total and with regards to 16 and 17-year-olds in further education, considerations are made in regards to their studies.[3]
There are regulations and guidance to safeguard all actors under the age of 18; OFCOM guidance states a childs health and safety, wellbeing and welfare is paramount in television production and factors such as their age, maturity and life experiences can affect their performance.[4] OFCOM also advises that broadcasters undertake risk assesmsents, consider seeking expert advice and follow best practise.[4]
Issues
Ownership of earnings
Before the 1930s, many child actors never got to see the money they earned because they were not in charge of this money. Jackie Coogan earned millions of dollars from working as a child actor only to see most of it squandered by his parents. In 1939, California weighed in on this controversy and enacted the Coogan Bill which requires a portion of the earnings of a child to be preserved in a special savings account called a blocked trust.[5] A trust that is not actively monitored can also be problematic however as in the case of Gary Coleman who after working from 1974, later sued his adoptive parents and former business advisor for $3.8 million over misappropriation of his trust fund.[6][7]
Competitive pressure
Some people[who?] also criticize the parents of child actors for allowing their children to work, believing that more "normal" activities should be the staple during the childhood years. Others[who?] observe that competition is present in all areas of a childs life—from sports to student newspaper to orchestra and band—and believe that the work ethic instilled or the talent developed accrues to the childs benefit.[citation needed]
The child actor may experience unique and negative pressures when working under tight production schedules. Large projects which depend for their success on the ability of the child to deliver an effective performance add to the pressure.[citation needed]
Ethel Merman, who several times worked in long-running stage productions with child actors, disliked what she eventually saw as their overprofessionalization - "acting more like midgets than children" - and disapproved of parents pushing adulthood on them.[8]
Post-success troubles
The failure to retain stardom and success and the exposure at a young age to fame has caused many child actors to lead adult lives plagued by legal troubles, bankruptcy and drug abuse.
Examples include child cast members of the American sitcom Diffrent Strokes Todd Bridges, Gary Coleman, and Dana Plato. Plato went on to pose for Playboy magazine and was featured in several softcore pornography films. She was arrested twice for armed robbery and forging prescriptions, and died in May 1999 from an overdose of prescription medication, deemed suicide. Coleman famously sued his parents for misuse of his trust fund and, although awarded over $1,000,000, filed for bankruptcy in 1999. After many charges of assault throughout the next years, Coleman died in May 2010. Bridges was plagued with many legal troubles as well as an addiction to cocaine. After breaking this habit, he became an anti-drug activist and traveled across the U.S., touring schools and warning about the dangers of drug abuse. He has since made several cameo appearances on multiple television programs.
The popular television sitcom Full House made child stars out of Jodie Sweetin and the Olsen twins. After the show, Sweetin went on to develop an addiction to methamphetamine, as well as alcoholism. She later overcame this and wrote a memoir describing her experiences. Mary-Kate Olsen, as well as Tracey Gold from the serial Growing Pains, both developed eating disorders, for which they were treated with intensive rehab. Anissa Jones, best known for appearing in the sitcom Family Affair, overdosed on August 28, 1976 at age 18.
Jonathan Brandis, who appeared in a number of films as a child and teenager, committed suicide by hanging in November 2003 at the age of 27 due to reasons possibly related to his lack of continued success into adulthood. Likewise, Sawyer Sweeten, a child actor who portrayed Geoffrey Barone on the American sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, took his life in April 2015 at the age of 19, after a period of depression.
Drew Barrymore was notorious for her illegal and public antics beginning shortly after her first role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Barrymore admits to smoking cigarettes at age nine, drinking alcohol by the time she was 11, smoking marijuana at the age of 12, and snorting cocaine at the age of 13. At the age of 14, she attempted suicide.
Another popular example today of child actors with post-success troubles would be Lindsay Lohan. Famous for her starring roles in The Parent Trap (1998), Freaky Friday (2003), Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), Mean Girls (2004), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Just My Luck (2006) and Georgia Rule (2007), Lohan has since run into much trouble with the law. In May 2007, Lohan was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI.) Lohan entered the Promises Treatment Center rehabilitation facility where she stayed for 45 days. In July of that year, less than two weeks out of rehab, Lohan was arrested a second time on charges of possession of cocaine, driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license. In August, Lohan pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cocaine use and driving under the influence and was sentenced to an alcohol education program, community service, one day in jail, and was given three years probation. The same month Lohan entered the Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in Sundance, Utah for a third stint at rehabilitation, staying for three months until her discharge in October. In November, Lohan served 84 minutes in jail. A sheriff spokesman cited overcrowding and the nonviolent nature of the crime as reasons for the reduced sentence.
In 1990, actor and writer Paul Petersen founded a support group for child actors, "A Minor Consideration", following the suicide of another former child star, Rusty Hamer. The group seeks to improve working conditions for child actors and to assist in the transition to adult life, whether in acting or other professions.[9]
Post-childhood success
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Jodie Foster in 1974
There are many instances of troubled adult lives due to the stressful environment to which child actors are subjected. It is common to see a child actor grow up in front of the camera, whether in films, television shows or both. However, it is not uncommon to see child actors continue their careers throughout as actors or in a different professional field.
Jodie Foster started acting at age three, becoming the quintessential child actor during the 1970s with roles in films such as Tom Sawyer (1973) Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Bugsy Malone (1976), The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), and Freaky Friday (1976). A child prodigy, Foster received at age 13 her first Academy Award nomination, and later took a sabbatical from films to attend Yale University. She made a successful transition to adult roles, winning two Academy Awards for Best Actress before the age of 30, and starring in several successful and acclaimed films such as The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Nell (1994), Maverick (1994), Contact (1997), and The Brave One (2007), thus establishing herself as one of the most accomplished and sought-after actresses of all-time. She has also ventured into directing, and her directing credits include films such as Little Man Tate (1991) and Money Monster (2016) and television shows such as House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black and Black Mirror.
Now adults, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, the three leads of the acclaimed Harry Potter film series (2001–11), starred in all the installments in the series, and have since then continued to act in film, television, and theater in their late twenties and early thirties.
Dakota Fanning rose to prominence after her breakthrough performance at age seven in the film I Am Sam (2001). Her performance earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination at age eight in 2002, making her the youngest nominee in SAG history. She later appeared in major Hollywood productions, in such acclaimed blockbuster films as Man on Fire (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Charlottes Web (2006), Hounddog (2007), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Coraline (2009), The Twilight Saga film series (2009–12), The Runaways (2010), and The Motel Life (2012). Fannings younger sister, Elle Fanning also rose to prominence as a child actress, having appeared in many films since before she turned three.
Miranda Cosgrove, known mainly for her role on Drake & Josh as a child, gained more attention for her role as a teenager in the show iCarly. Since the end of the show she has been featured in other roles, including as the voice of Margo in the Despicable Me franchise. Once she was of age, she decided to pursue a college degree in film at the University of Southern California.[10]
Shirley Temple became a public figure and diplomat, beginning in the 1960s. Some of her duties included representing the United Nations, and becoming a U.S. ambassador in countries such as Ghana and Czechoslovakia.[11]
Mary-Kate Olsen was treated for an eating disorder, deemed anorexia, but her twin sister remained less troubled. In an article with the magazine Marie Claire, Mary-Kate expressed the bittersweet nature of the twins childhood. "I look at old photos of me, and I dont feel connected to them at all," she said. "I would never wish my upbringing on anyone... but I wouldnt take it back for the world." The twins now have continued success in the fashion industry with an estimated net worth of approximately $100 million.
Drew Barrymore started acting at age three. During her childhood she battled with drugs, but today she continues to act in films. Natalie Portman took a small break in acting to get a bachelors degree in Psychology from Harvard University before continuing her career as an actress. Rider Strong, known as "Shawn Hunter" in Boy Meets World, was educated at Columbia University and now runs a successful blog and published a graphic novel.[12] Neil Patrick Harris got his acting start in Doogie Howser, M.D. He continues to act in television, films and theater.
Jonathan Lipnicki, known mostly for the Stuart Little films, now successfully competes in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.[12] Sara Gilbert is known for her role on Roseanne and is now successful as a talk show host on The Talk. Also from Rosanne, Michael Fishman continued to work in film, but behind the scenes and has since been nominated for an Emmy for the work he did in Sports Science. [12] Kirsten Dunst and Lacey Chabert both made the transition from a child actress to an adult actress with a rough patch including depression. After a stay in a rehabilitation center, Dunst was able to recover and continue her career. She proves that the pressures of growing up under the spotlight may not come without repercussions.[13]
Roddy McDowall, who had a long and distinguished career including as the regular star of the Planet of the Apes series; Micky Dolenz, who started his career as a child star in the 1950s, grew up to be a musician of the successful 1960s pop group The Monkees, which had its own successful television show; Ron Howard, who, in addition to being the star of both of the long running The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days television series, became an Academy Award-winning director in adulthood; Elijah Wood, who continued his career successfully into adulthood starring as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings film series and starring as Ryan Newman in the television series Wilfred. Other child actors who have continued their careers into adulthood include Rose Marie, Hayley Mills, Ann Jillian, Johnny Whitaker, Kathy Garver, Tim Matheson, Bonnie Franklin, Melissa Gilbert, Danielle Brisebois, Erika Eleniak, Max Pomeranc, Christina Ricci, Shelley Fabares, Candace Cameron Bure, Karron Graves, Gaby Hoffmann, Hilary Duff, Molly Ringwald, Stacy Ferguson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lisa Whelchel, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Soleil Moon Frye, Melissa Joan Hart, Dean Stockwell, Fred Savage, Neil Patrick Harris, Michelle Chia, Shawn Lee, Joshua Ang, Aloysius Pang, Scarlett Johansson, Raven-Symoné and other Academy Award winners and nominees include; Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, Helen Hunt, Irene Cara, Reese Witherspoon, Hilary Swank, Christian Bale, Saoirse Ronan, Brie Larson, Lacey Chabert, Elizabeth Taylor, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Other careers
Many actors careers are short-lived and this is also true of child actors. Many actors out of personal choice that start their careers as child actors decide not to pursue the same careers as adults, Shirley Temple became a public figure and diplomat. Peter Ostrum, appearing in his only role, the title character of Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory became a large-scale veterinarian surgeon. Whilst Jenny Lewis, formerly of film Troop Beverly Hills in 1989, is a well-known singer-songwriter indie rock musician.
In Poland, child actor identical twin brothers Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński became very successful politicians, at one time Lech being President and Jarosław the Prime Minister.
See also
List of child actors
Child labour
Child singer
Acting age
Child prodigy
