Figure 1.--Jackie Cooper is seen here at about 7 or 8 years of age. I'm not sure what movie this was. |
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Information about chilod actors also provodes a great deal of fashion information. Both clothes these children wore as well as the costumes they wore in their films and shows provide much valuable information. These childrens often dressed very fashionably so information about them provides insights into contemprary fashions. The costumes they wore in films also provides useful information--although it must be treated more cautiously.HBC is preparing an alphabetical listing of child actors in movies, plays, and television.
Pleasant boy who played Hobi? in the cheezy TV-series "Bay Watch." He appeared in shorts regularly. He latter played the dim-witted JT on "Step by Step" which had two younger brothers. In 1996 he was gunned down in Los Angeles while driving home from the studio. He was badly wounded, but survived.
A French reader informs us that an important French child movie star during the 1950s was Claude Capeland. HBC knows nothing about Claude at this time. We do know that he was in the 1953 Frrench film "Tourments" byfrom Jacques-Daniel Norman with Tino Rossi (a famous singer). Claude was 8 years old and dressd in typical "culottes courtes" french-mode of
that time.
Began acting at 4 years old. His first major role is Henry (Indy) in "Young Indiana Jones." He complained about the formal clothes he had to wear on the warm locations. I wears a nice grey a knicker suit with wide white collar and tie and various other knicker outfits. I was rather impressed with him, he seemed like a personable little chap. One reviewer referred to his performance as "colorless" and that he never seemed anything other than "your basic generic little boy." Perhaps, but then that is probably why I rather liked him. They did quite a bit of traveling for the show. He particularly disliked the scorpion he found in his tent. He was a 6th grader at the time and loves to ear pizza. His mom served as his teacher on location. He complained that he can't get away with anything when his mother was his teacher.
Teen age idol best known as the hair tossing pop star older brother in the TV sitcom "The Partridge Family." He played a 7-15 year old child in the play "Blood Brothers" in 1994-95. As a teen he always wore longs, but in this British play he wears shorts. One reviewer said the other adults playing children looked ridiculous, but David caries it off.
Billy Chapin was born in Los Angeles during 1943. Billy's career began in the 1940s. He appeared in a number of movies during the 1950s. He may be best known for Kid from Left Field (1953). Perhaps his best film was Night Of The Hunter (1955). Another good film was Tension at Table Rock (1956). Billy was effective in his roles, but perhaps not one of the more talented of the chold actors. Heoften is seen withn a rather dreamy expression. Many of his films have contemorary settings in which he wears typical 1950s clothing. In one film he wears bob-front overalls. He made one appearance in Leave It to Beaver (1958). Billy's older brother Michael also had film roles.
An English reader provides some information on Jimmy Clitheroe, an actor he remembers from his boyhood. "I read the page about the Australian boy with much interest and in particular the glandular abnormality which gave rise to his extraordinary height. As you say he looks more like a 17-year-old youth rather than a boy of 11. In a kind of role reversal, there was a British entertainer named Jimmy Clitheroe 1921-1973 who also suffered a kind of glandular abmormality. However, in Jimmy's case no matter how old he got he still looked like a 12-year-old boy.
As you can see from Jimmy's appearance, he's not what you would call a true midget, where growth of the body as been halted, yet the rest of the body such as limbs and head are perfectly grown, thereby throwing everything out of proportion. He often played the part of a cheeky schoolboy, even in his 20s dressed in short pants and knee socks. Believe me when I say that he looks very much a boy, but he is in fact a mature adult and it was a wonderful illusion. I was an ardent fan of Jimmy and I still am. I remember he was on TV one evening when I was a boy, and it was from my grandmother that I learned that Jimmy was in real life not a boy, but a man. I couldn't believe that he was born in the same year as my mother. As he grew older you could see that the illusion was beginning to fade especially when he was in close-up and you noticed the bags under his eyes."
John Clark was an English child actor. He began his career on the stage, playing in the Victoria palace. His first performances were with star Will Hay during World War II. He also played the star pupil on the "Will Hay Programme". John is perhaps best known in England for his role as William Brown in the original BBC broadcasts during the 1940s of Richmal Crompton's beloved Just William. He was the original William, but after his voive broke, he had to be replaced with another child actor.
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Kevin Cocoran was born in Santa Monica, California. He had a lot of child parts in Disney films during the early 1960s. He always played an engaging little guy. Kevin was a Mouskateer. Many Americans growingbup in the 1950s will remembered him as "Moochie" in the "Spin and
Marty" TV series on the "Micky Mouse Club". He played in a wide range of films with both period and contemprary settings and wore a wide range of costumes. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember him in "The Shaggy Dog (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), Pollyana (1960), Toby Tyler (1960), The Absent Minded Professor (1961), Donovan's Reef (1963). He was one of the orphans in Polyana where he wore knickers. In Donovan's Reef he wears a Fauntleroy suit. Perhaps hios best performannce was in Old Yeller (1957). Kevin's brothers and sisters also appdeared in the movies and TV. I'm not sure what Kevin did after his Disney child roles. He does not appear to have continued his acting careers.
Tim Considine was born in Los Angeles into a show biz family. His father was British-born film producer John W. Considine and theater-chain heiress Carmen Pantages. Tim's brother John was also an actor. His uncle was newspaper columnist Bob Considine. He began his film career at age 12, playing Red Skelton's son in "The Clown" (1953). He was sihned up by Disney in the mid-50s. He co-starred in the "Spin and Marty" and "Hardy Boys" serials aired on the popular 1950s "Mickey Mouse Club" TV program. He appeared in several Disney films such as "The Shsggy Fog" (1959). His career at Disney ended with a run in with Walt Disney. He was in three movies during 1960. His most serious role was tht of James Roosevelt in "Sunrise at Campobello". He began a 5-year run as Mike Douglas on the popular TV sitcom "My Three Sons" with fellow Disney star Fred MacMurray and Don Grady. That was his last major role. He has a number of bit movie parts. The most memorable and briefest was the shell-shocked soldier slapped by George C. Scott in "Patton" (1970).
Born Jack Lesie Coogan on October 24, 1914 in Los Angeles. He was the son of vaudevillians and became the best loved of all the child silent stars during the 1920s. He became an international legend as silent films had no language barrier to overcome. His first screen appearance was in "Skinner's Baby" (1917) at 18 months of age. His father was a successful song and dance man in Vaudeville. He was a regular attraction at age 4 in an Annette Kellerman revue when an impressed Charlie Chaplin caught the act in Los Angeles. He used Jackie in the two reeler "A Days Pleasure" (1919) to get him used to the camera and movie making. He then made him the co-star of his first feature length film, "The Kid" (1921). Looking back, Chaplin wrote, "What attracted me to the boy was a whimsical, wistful quality, a genuineness of feeling. Jackie later wrote, "Chaplin created a whole picture around me and became the best playmate any kid could have. When we weren't shooting the film we were having fun playing hide-and-seek, hopscotch, or sometimes baseball." The bright eyed little ragamuffin in a tattered cap and oversized trousers won the hearts of movie audiences from the start. His career as an international child star was phenomenal from the start and his every move was reported in the world press. He was nicely dressed by his parents. I saw one still of him at 6 in a great sailor suit. He appeared dressed as a little Dutch girl in the movie "A Boy in Flanders" (1924). He was received by such diverse institutions as the League of Nations and the Pope. Some time in the 1920s, I'd say about 1925 he had an audience with the Pope. He was outfitted in the most ridiculous sissy suit with short pants and still wore long curls. (Notable as he was quite bald as an adult.) Amazingly, Jackie remained a very unaffected child. Even the most cynical reporters had to admit he was unspoiled and honest. At the time there were no restrictions on how children were handled. One director reportedly threatened to shoot his dog to get him to cry. His salary was among Hollywood's highest: he received a $0.5 million bonus just for switching from First National to Metro, with a contract calling for wages of $1 million plus a percentage of the profits in 2 years. His parents gave him a $6.25 weekly allowance. His popularity waned as he grew up. The turning point was probably symbolized in a newsmaking hair-cutting ceremony at 12, when the famous rumpled bob was shorn to the clicking of cameras, and MGM promptly seized the opportunity to produce "Johnny Get Your Hair Cut" (1927), which showed Jackie before and after the big event. It was to be his last role as a child star which is a little strange as he still looked rather boyish. He made no movies in either 1928 or 1929. He made a brief screen comeback in "Tom Sawyer" (1930), his first talkie, and in "Huckleberry Finn" (1931) in which he still looked boyish even though he was 16 and 17 years old respectively. By the mid 1930s he was all but forgotten. His popularity sagged as adolescence took over. In 1935, the same year he was to receive the estimated $4 million he had earned as a child star, he was injured in an automobile accident that took the life of his father and fellow child actor Junior Durkin. While Jackie was a model child, his parents were not. His mother and stepfather were in no hurry to part with his money. Jackie married starlet Betty Grable in 1937 and found himself unable to support her. He filed suit in 1938, but eventually received only about $125,000. The whole incident led to the passage of a law, know as the Coogan Act, to prevent such abuses. He enlisted in the Army during World War II and was decorated for his service in Burma. He played various character parts as an adult, most notably Uncle Fenster on the TV series "The Adams Family."
Bobby Cooper play George Amberson as a boy in classic Orson Wells film, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). In two brief scenes he wears a classic Little Lord Faintleroy suit and wide brimmed-sailor hat with ringlet curls and later a kilt. HBC knows little about Bobby's film career, but he played in several other movies in 1941-46: H.M. Pulham, Esq (1941), Secrets of Scotland Yard (1944), Strange Voyage (1945), My Reputation (1946), and Galant Voyage (1946). HBC is not familiar with any of these filns or Bobby's performance in them.
Born John Cooper, Jr., on September 15, 1921 in Los Angeles. He was a nephew of film director Norman Taurog. He began appearing in Bobby Clark and Lloyd Hamilton comedies and later was in eight episodes of "Our Gang" comedies. During the 1930s he was one of Hollywood's most popular child stars, in a long series of tear jerkers. He was dominated for a Academy Award for best actor as a result of his performance in "Skippy" (1930). He apparently wore shorts as a boy. I once saw a TV show where Ken Murry showed his home movies, shot in Hollywood. He had a nice scene, I think taken during the filming of "Skippy" when he was about 9 or 10 years old. Jackie was in a soapbox derby race with Groucho and Harpo Marx. He wore a nice short pants (knee length) suit with an open neck shirt. He looked very smart, I think it must have been the suit he normally wore, not his costume for "Skippy." He was teamed with Wallace Berry in several successful films; "The Champ" (1931), "The Bowery" (1933), and "Treasure Island" (1934). He was a manly little fellow and once complained during the making of "Dinky" (1935) that in the fight scene the other children were cautioned to be careful not to hurt him. He complained to his mother "I don't want fellows like these to treat me like a sissy!" He seems to have worn shorts as a boy as a lot of the publicity shots show him him wearing shorts. At about 13 he began taking his acting a bit more seriously and became a bit embarrassed about his previous roles. The one he was most proud of, however, was "Treasure Island." His film career declined as he got older, but he made a comeback on television. He kept his kids out of show business, saying nothing could make up for what they lose.
Johnnie played the son, Mark McCain, on "The Rifleman." He was 12 when he got the job and played on the show for 5 years. He looks back on the experience with affection, saying what more could a 12-year old want than to make money playing cowboy. His role cast him as a thoughtful boy contrasted to the brash, macho father. His musical abilities were occasionally worked into the script. He had little luck, however, finding adult roles after the season finished. He now only occasionally acts or performs, he likes 1930-40s music. He also makes money renting his growing collection of vintage cars to Hollywood studios.
Tom did not act professionally as a child. He apparently liked did like to show off and dress up as a girl. National Enquier during November 1994 had some shots when he was about 12 or 13 years old dressed a girl. Interesting as boys that age are usually quite shy about such things. And his movie image is a rather macho image.
Brandon was the charming little boy starring in the TV series, "The Courtship of Eddie's Father". He played his par beautifully and while always nicely dressed never wore shorts. There was even closing shots of him at the beach--in jeans! Joddie Foster once appeared with him in a very smart sailor suit, but especially interesting togs for Brandon. He sometimes appeared in a sports jacket with a tyrtle neck sweater. I'm not familiar with his other work, but he has had adult movie rolls. I saw him on TV in 1996 complaining about how MacCauley Culkin's parents are taking advantage of him. He doesn't look at all like the cute little guy on television.
Cute little fellow with an increasingly impressive string of credits. I am rather taken with his sweet little smile. He has had ballet training which is rather interesting and told one interviewer that he met Steven Speilberg (I think) at Lincoln Center when he was in a ballet. Time magazine published a lovely little photo of him 9 or so in a pink knickers suit, white tights, and patent leather dancing shoes (Time, October 11, 1993). All the little girls in the back ground are just smiling their little hearts out. In his first movie, he gave a very sensitive performance as the grandson in "Rocket Gibraltar" (1988) while he was quite young. Not a big success, I rather liked his performance. He appears in shorts, but was quite a little guy. He was also in "The Boy Who Could Fly," He particularly caught my eye playing next to John Candy in "Uncle Buck" (198?). His excellent performance earned him a staring role in "Home Alone" (1990) in which he also turns in a masterful performance making him a national celebrity. The critics panned the film, but partly due to Macaulay's performance it proved to be the box office hit of 1990. He apparently is a bit of a practical joker and made some helpful suggestions concerning tricks to use on the burglers that were incorporated in the film. He once set up a trip wire that sent another boy flying off his skateboard. He did a rather nice job in "My Girl" (1991). A promotional picture shows him in khaki shorts which he wears a lot during the picture, but not as dressy clothes. From the clips I have seen he really does a fine job in a very sensitive film. The "Home Alone" sequel "Home Alone II" (1992) simply replays the same formula. His father Kit apparently pushed for his next role "The Good Son" which he shot in 1992-93 and in which he plays an evil boy role. He also insisted on a part for Mac's sister Quinn. Mac was apparently aggravated because the other boy was teasing him about taking ballet lessons. I don't know any of the details and am not sure what he thought about taking the ballet lessons, but in an interview he did not seem overly sensitive and appears to have enjoyed ballet. He told the interviewer, "I could pirouette before I could walk." During the making of the film he won about $50 in poker games with teamsters. I saw him in an interview on "Entertainment Tonight." He was cute, personable little fellow, anxious to demonstrate his poker skills with the female interviewer. Not a very interesting interview, but he clearly enjoyed his acting experiences. He receives his first on screen kiss from Anna Chlumsky in "My Girl." "It was nothing," he says, but in TV talk shows (David Letterman) he was rather shy about it and made a big deal about how he pursed his lips, apparently emphasizing it was not a big smoochy kiss. Letterman asked him if his little co-star enjoyed it and McCauly suggest that he should ask her. (Good answer.) He mush have gotten asked about that kiss by endless interviewers. In another interview he replied rather matter of factly, "Yeah, you're right. I did get my first screen kiss." He also described his visits with Michael Jackson to Letterman. It was the only time during the interview that he showed much enthusiasm. He described some of the games and activities at the Jackson estate. He danced in the ballet movie "The Nutcracker (199?)." He had a nice pink satin suit which he wore with white tights, but unfortunately had only brief appearances. The producers had a run in with Macaulay's father and, as a result, he did not feature prominently in the promotions for the film. He had a small part in the mostly animated film, "Pagemaster" (1994), in which he played a timid boy. He also made "Richie Rich" (1994). If they would have followed the comic strip closely, he would have worn a short pants suit and white knee socks, but that was too much to ask for. At any rate it was getting a little late as he had turned 13 and was increasingly difficult to cast in little boy roles. "Richie Rich" was not a box office success and the movie offers declined. Also he began to become increasingly spoiled. He appeared a final time on Letterman and Dave made fun of him because he refused to accept Dave's calls. Dave wanted to know how a 14-year old boy can be too busy to take his calls. Apparently there were a lot of tension between his parents over his acting. Mom feels dad is pushing his career too much. The disputes inevitably led to litigation. He was reportedly offered a movie roll in 1996 for a much-reduced, but still impressive $1 million, but refused because of all the problems at home.
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