As long as Hollywood has existed, it has employed children to appear in films. Before there was Jodie Foster or Lindsay Lohan or the Olsen Twins or Shia LaBeouf or any of the other innumerable, ever-changing list of child actors of more recent times, there were child actors of an earlier generation who were , I believe, far more talented.
During Hollywood’s beginnings and throughout its Golden Years, there were many young actors and actresses who stood out. The ten I consider to be the most gifted among them are as follows:
Jackie Coogan
There had been child actors in silent films before, but Jackie Coogan became more famous than all of them. He was probably the first real child star in movies.
Coogan started in vaudeville, delighting audiences with his precocious performances. His abilities brought him to the attention of the great screen comic Charlie Chaplin, who put him in the title role of “The Kid.” The story of the cute, large-eyed waif taken care of by Chaplin’s The Tramp character made movie-goers both laugh and cry, and the film became a gigantic commercial hit. Jackie also starred in the films “Oliver Twist,” “Circus Days,” “Little Robinson Crusoe,” “The Rag Man,” “Peck’s Bad Boy” and “Buttons.
Much like the child actors of our day, big business was made as his name and likeness were used to sell everything from peanut butter to records. He personally earned millions over the course of his childhood acting career..
His legal battle with his mother over his earnings led to the California Child Actors’ Bill, which requires the parents of kid actors to put 15% of their income into a trust for them. Thanks to that law, a lot of child actors owe a debt of appreciation to Jackie Coogan. Unfortunately, it was too late for him to benefit from the passage of this law, since his greedy mother and stepdad had pretty much run through most of his money.
Although Coogan did keep working, his popularity waned as he grew older. He married four times, including once to actress Betty Grable, fought in World War II and returned to the film industry, albeit no longer famous.
It was television that revitalized his career. Today’s television audiences should remember him from the 1960’s series “The Adams Family,” in which he played the delightfully kooky Uncle Fester.
Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper first got noticed when he appeared in a number of :Hal Roach’s “Our Gang” comedy shorts. From there, he launched into a solo career and starred in such films as “The Champ,” ” O’Shaughnessy’s Boy,” “Skippy,” “Dinky,””Treasure Island” and “The Bowery.”
The adorable, towheaded boy with blonde hair, pug nose and deep voice charmed fans worldwide during the 1930’s and he became one of the most heralded child actors of his day.
Following the pattern of most child actors, getting older decreased his popularity, but it hardly made him self-destruct. He served in the military during World War II and returned’ to a somewhat stalled career, which took off again, thanks to television. Not only did he star in guests roles, such as the “Dummy” episode on “The Twilight Zone,” two of his own television shows- “Hennesey,” and “People’s Choice”- but the revival of interest in the old “Our Gang” shorts, now called “The Little Rascal,” has garnered a whole new appreciation for his career as a child actor.
Jackie Copper later became an award-winning television director.
Shirley Temple
Who hasn’t heard of Shirley Temple?
She probably deserves the title of “most famous child actor of all time,” due to the films she made and the intense merchandising that accompanied her career. Even now, in 2006, she has a large fan base and people still collect Shirley Temple memorabilia, such as the highly sought-after dolls in her likeness.
After appearing in a few movie shorts, Fox Film Corporation signed her to a contract and she began making the films that brought her fame and provided the studio with lots of profits. Shirley was more popular than many adult stars. Her dimples, curly blonde locks and precocious dancing talent kept her at the head of the box office. Fox almost went into a financial decline and it was Shirley’s movies that kept their studio from going under. She even earned a Juvenile Performer Academy award in 1935.
Her most well-known films are “Stand Up and Cheer,” “The Little Colonel,” “Heidi,” “The Littlest Rebel,” “Bright Eyes,” “Just Around the Corner” and “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.” Many may not know that the part of Dorothy in the classic”The Wizard of Oz” was originally intended for Shirley, but studio politics foiled her being cast.
Children do grow up, however, and as she transitioned into adolescence, her hair darkening and her figure beginning to bloom, her popularity was not as great as it was during her earlier years. Still she got parts in decent films like “Since You Went Away” and “The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer.”
When actor Ronald Reagan gave Shirley her first screen kiss in the movie “That Hagen Girl,” some of her fans had problems accepting the fact that “their” Shirley had grown up.
She married her “Fort Apache” costar, B-list actor John Agar, whom she later divorced, and then married Charles Black, a businessman. She and Black had two children.
Her life beyond films has been extremely successful.
Her involvement in the political arena resulted in her being appointed as the American ambassador to Ghana from 1974-1976, as well as obtaining a prestigious position in the state department and serving on the boards of a number of organizations, such as “The United Nations Association.
After winning a highly-publicized battle with breast cancer and continuing to receive several honors, she retired to Woodside, California, where she still receives fan mail.
One could say that, in terms of ultimate success, Shirley Temple is the most fortunate of all former child actors.
Freddie Bartholomew
Freddie Bartholomew was surely one of the most eloquent of child actors.
His Hollywood career began when he was cast in the 1935 version of “David Copperfield,” based on the Charles Dickens novel. His curly hair, dimples, beautiful face and articulate, British-accented speech made him very popular with audiences.
He was second only to Shirley Temple in terms of earnings. Sadly, most of those earnings were lost, due to legal battles with his alcoholic mother, who attempted to gain custody of him, once she saw the money rolling in. He had been brought up by his aunt after his dysfunctional parents had abandoned him, so their new interest in him was purely for financial reasons. Some of his most well-known films were “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” “Anna Karenina,” “Captains Courageous,” “Kidnapped,” “The Devil Is a Sissy” and “Lloyd’s of London.”
As he got older, he fell out of favor with movie audiences, who no longer preferred the types of movies he had been most identified with and, after a stint in the Air Force during World War II, he eventually decided to turn his back on Hollywood. Understandably, he harbored considerable resentment towards an industry that had so easily used, then discarded him.
Things had gotten so bad for him financially, at one point, that he and his wife had to live in a car.
He got divorced twice and suffered from alcoholism for awhile, but recovered from that addiction.
He did return to the entertainment world in one form, however, when he became a soap opera producer. Before he died from emphysema in 1992, he was even able to reconcile himself to his past days as a Hollywood child star.
Margaret O’Brien
Margaret O’Brien was one of Hollywood’s cutest child actresses during the 1940’s, as well as one of its best young actresses. She was only five years old when she starred as a war orphan in “Journey for Margaret,” and her acting skills, even at so young an age, were apparent to both critics and movie audiences.
Her films include “Jane Eyre,” “Meet Me In St. Louis,” “The Canterville Ghost,” “The Secret Garden” and “Little Women.” Her acting ability was so great that she often was able to steal scenes from her adult co-stars and, at one point, she became the number one box office draw in America.
Margaret O’Brien left Hollywood in the 1950’s-healthy, wealthy and relatively unfazed. In comparison to some of her fellow former child actors, most of her Hollywood experiences were very positive.
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney was, without a doubt, one of the most gifted of all child actors and has had a more lasting professional career than most of his peers. He was and is a multi-talented actor, dancer and singer.
Born to vaudevillians, his first film role of note was as Mickey McGuire in the “Mickey McGuire” silent comedy shorts. He went on to get a contract from M-G-M, which began a long and lucrative relationship. He appeared in the “Andy Hardy” series, “Boys Town,” “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “Ah, Wilderness,” “National Velvet” and “The Human Comedy.
What he is probably best remembered for, however, is the musicals he starred in, many of them with fellow child star Judy Garland. Their films together included “Babes in Arms,” “Strike Up the Band,” “Girl Crazy,” “Babes On Broadway” and “Words and Music.”
Though there was a slight lull in his career after his return from serving in the military during Word War II, he continued and still continues to work in films and also appear on television..
One of the things that has also captured as much attention as his career is his number of marriages …eight at last count.
Judy Garland
Judy Garland started out as a child actor and grew up to became a legend. In spite of all of the acclaim she received for her incredible singing voice and other gifts, she became one of Hollywood’s saddest figures.
Born Frances Gumm, she sang with her sisters “Jimmie” and “Susie,” where they were pushed into show business by their rather ambitious stage-mother, Ethel.
Frances’s professional name was changed to “Judy Garland” and it didn’t take long to figure out who was the breakout talent in the group of sisters. After she sang a song dedicated to movie star Clark Gable- “You Made Me Love You”- at an M-G-M birthday bash for him, the studio put her under contract. Giving her great moral support was studio composer and associate producer, Roger Edens, who was instrumental in helping her develop as an artist.
As we all know, the movie that made her a star was “The Wizard of Oz,” in which she played Dorothy Gale. No one who sees this movie, to this day, can resist being touched by her vulnerable performance. Judy’s career took off like a whirlwind from that point, as she made successful movie after movie.
Unfortunately, the studio put her on the merry-go-round of the prescription drugs-barbiturates and amphetamines- with the intention of keeping her going through the long days of filming, then helping her to sleep at night and also to lose weight. This was contributory to her later struggles with addiction.
Her other films include “Love Finds Andy Hardy,” “Ziegfeld Girl,” “Easter Parade,” “Meet Me In St. Louis,” “For Me and My Gal,” “The Harvey Girls,” “The Clock,” “In The Good Old Summertime,” “A Star Is Born,” (for which she received an Oscar nomination, but lost to Grace Kelly),and “Judgment at Nuremberg.” After her suicide attempt and other mental health issues that made her undependable , M-G-M had little choice except to let her go.
She went on to conquer television with an Emmy-award-winning variety show, “The Judy Garland Show,” perform in several successful concert tours and make best-selling recordings.
Judy had all the things you might think would make a happy life, but her personal demons caused her existence to be disastrous and eventually impeded on the success of her professional life. She continued to be addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol, married five times, and on June 22, 1969, was discovered dead from an accidental drug overdose in her hotel bathroom.
She was just 47-years-old.
Despite the tragedy of her life, Judy Garland’s status as a show business legend remains as strong as ever.
If you ever want to get an idea of what her life was really like, I recommend trying to get a copy of “Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadow,” a Lifetime Television movie based on the book by Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft and starring actress Judy Davis as Judy Garland.
Roddy McDowell
Roddy McDowell was one of the most successful child actors of the 1940’s.The British-born McDowell was yet another M-G-M discovery.
He gave a compelling performance in his first M-G-M film, “How Green Was My Valley,” in which he played Huw, (yep, that’s the correct spelling), the youngest child in a family of Welsh coal-miners.
Some of his other well-received films were “Lassie Come Home,” “The White Cliffs of Dover,” “My Friend Flicka,” and “Thunderhead, Son of Flicka.” He continued to make films as an adult, although no longer in starring roles. Some of his most notable appearances were in “Cleopatra” “The Poseiden Adventure” and four of the “Planet of the Apes” movies. Horror film fans may remember him as vampire killer Peter Vincent in “Fright Night.
He also acted on television. I remember him particularly in the pilot for Rod Serling’s “Night Gallery” series. The segment he was in was titled “Cemetary.” Roddy played a sinister character named Jeremy Evans, who brings about his ailing, wealthy uncle’s death in order to get his inheritance, but is gradually driven insane by a painting that appears to keep changing and showing his dead uncle rising, walking from the graveyard, getting nearer and nearer to the house, then up to the door. When he hears the sound of pounding on the front door, the terrified man falls down the stairway to his death. As scary a thing as I’ve ever looked at, so much so that, to this day, if it comes on, I cannot watch it.
After a long career as an actor and photographer, Rodney McDowell died from cancer on October 3, 1998.
Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner is probably one of the most underrated of Classic Hollywood’s child actors. She never became as well-known as the others on this list, but her few film performances were sensitive and beautifully done.
Like many young film actresses, Peggy Ann had an aggressive stage mother who pushed her into child modeling and the stage. As expected, her mom took her to Hollywood, where she got a role in an Ann Sheridan picture, “Little Miss Thoroughbred.
Some of her other films include “The Keys of the Kingdom,” “In Name Only,” “Jane Eyre,” “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn,” (which netted her a Juvenile Academy Award),and “Daisy Kenyon.
Typical of many child actors, growing up stymied her movie career and she eventually left Hollywood for the stage.
She died on October 16, 1984.
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most beautiful child actresses of the screen who grew up to become one of its most breathtaking and intriguing adult actresses.
Born in England to American parents, Elizabeth moved to Los Angeles with them and, after a screen test, was signed by Universal Studios. At the age of nine-years-old., she appeared in her first movie, “There’s One Born Every Minute.” Universal obviously did not realize the potential goldmine they had and released her from her contract. M-G-M very wsely signed her.
As a child actress, she had parts in several notable films of the 1940’s. Among them was “Lassie, Come Home,” “The Courage of Lassie,” “National Velvet,” and “The White Cliffs of Dover.”
Unlike many child stars, adolescence did not diminish her career, chiefly because, as she grew older, her beauty was all the more extraordinary. As a teenager, she appeared in “Cynthia,” “A Date With Judy” and “Little Women.” She eventually began to have more grownup roles, such as in “Conspirator,” “Father of the Bride,,” “Father’s Little Dividend” and “A Place In the Sun.
From that time onward, Taylor continued to make numerous movies and become even more famous than she had been as a child. Her roles became more mature, even controversial, in such motion pictures as ” The Last Time I Saw Paris,” “Raintree County,” “Giant,” “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof,” “Butterfield 8,” and “Cleopatra.” She won two Best Actress Oscars, for playing a call girl in “Butterfield 8” and as an alcoholic wife in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?
Her personal life has been as colorful as her movie career and she has been married a total of eight times, her most well-known marriages (2) being to actor Richard Burton. News of her illnesses, alcohol binges, fluctuating weight and extravagant lifestyle has filled many a gossip column. Taylor has also done theater and appeared on television. Her charitable work regarding research for AIDS has gained her additional recognition.
As of the writing, she is now 74-years-old and said to be in poor health. Still she continues to have countless fans and is, in truth, what could be considered as one of our last remaining “real” movie stars.
Elizabeth Taylor has truly become a national treasure.
Reference:
- Classic Movie Kids, a tribute to the child stars of yesteryear. www.classicmoviekids.com/
