Post by Kaz ~;~ on Aug 11, 2010 18:41:55 GMT -5
[/size][/url][/center]
--------------------------------
Date of Birth
3 March 1937, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
Date of Death
30 March 1968, New York City, New York, USA (conclusive coronary arteriosclerosis)
Birth Name
Robert Cletus Driscoll
Biography
Bobby Driscoll was a natural-born actor, discovered just by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CAL. and then convincing in anything he ever undertook on the movie screen and on television throughout his about seventeen years spanning career (1943-1960), which includes such notable movie screen appearances like in "The Fighting Sullivans", 1944, "Song Of The South",1946, "So Dear To My Heart", 1948 and "The Window",1949, which was not only the sleeper of the year 1949 but even earned him his Academy Award in March 1950 as the outstanding juvenile actor of the year 1949. For his role as Jim Hawkins in Walt Disney's "Treasure Island", 1950 he eventually received his Hollywood Star on 1560 Vine Street, and in 1954 he was chosen in a nation-wide poll for a Milky Way Gold Star Award (for his work on TV and radio). But all the more tragic, then, was his fruitless struggle to find a place in a pitiless adolescent world after severe acne had stalled his acting career at 16, when his face was no longer charming and his voice smooth enough to even be used for voice-over jobs, although his last big movie hit was significantly the voice of animated "Peter Pan", 1953, for which he was also the live-action model. When his contract with the Disney studios was prematurely terminated shortly after the release of Peter Pan in late March of 1953, his mother additionally took him from the talent-supporting Hollywood Professional School, which he attended by then. On his new School, the public Westwood University High School, on which he graduated in 1955, all of a sudden his former stardom became more burden than advantage, and although he successfully continued acting on TV until at least 1957 and could even manage it to get two final screen roles, in "The Scarlet Coat", 1955 and opposite of Mark Damon and Connie Stevens in "The Party Crashers", 1958, his life became more and more a roller coaster ride that included several encounters with the law and his eventual sentencing as a drug addict in October 1961. But released in early 1962, rehabilitated and eager to make a comeback, Bobby was ignored by the very industry that once had raised and nurtured him, - just because of his record as a convict and former drug addict. First famous... now infamous. Hoping to revive his career on the stage after his parole had expired in 1964, he eventually traveled to New York, only to learn that his reputation had preceded him, and no one wanted to hire him there, either. After a final appearance in Piero Heliczer's Underground movie "Dirt", in 1965 and a short art-period at Andy Warhol's so-called Factory, he disappeared into the underground, thoroughly dispirited, and his funds depleted, where on March 30, 1968, two playing children found his dead body in an abandoned East Village tenement. Believed to be an unclaimed and homeless person, he was then buried in an unmarked pauper's grave on Hart Island, where he remained until now.
Spouse
Marilyn Jean Rush (8 March 1957 - 1960) (divorced) 3 children
Marilyn Jean Rush (3 December 1956 - ?) (annulled) 3 children
------------------------------
Trivia
Was the first actor to sign long-term deal with Walt Disney's animation dept. When found dead, his identity was unknown and he was buried as a "John Doe" in pauper's grave. A year later, fingerprints finally revealed his identity.
Driscoll's body was discovered in an abandoned Greenwich Village tenement by two children playing there on March 30, 1968.
His voice was used for Walt Disney's feature Peter Pan (1953) and an actual "acting" performance was filmed, then rotoscoped for the animated character.
One of cinema's most critically acclaimed boy actors, he won a special Academy Award at age 12 as the "outstanding juvenile actor" of 1949 for his excellent work in the films So Dear to My Heart (1948) and The Window (1949).
Even though his character was animated he was the first boy ever to play Peter Pan. Before then only women played Peter Pan.
Buried in a mass grave on New York's Hart Island, better known as Potter's Field.
Even though he was the studio's first contract player, Disney terminated Driscoll's second long-term contract (covering seven years) three years early, in 1953, weeks after the theatrical release of Peter Pan. It is generally believed that his severe acne was the reason. This prevented him from playing other feature roles for the studio that would seem to be tailor-made for him, like Johnny Tremain and The Light in the Forest.
----------------------------------
Personal Quotes
(on his rise and fall in Hollywood) "I have found that memories are not very useful. I was carried on a silver platter and then dumped into the garbage can."
"He's got a great talent. I've worked with a lot of child players in my time, but none of them bore the promise that seems inherent in young Driscoll." -- Don Ameche
(as a child) "I'm going to save my money and go to college, then become a G-man."
(on his adolescence) "I really feared people. The other kids didn't accept me. They treated me as one apart. I tried desperately to be one of the gang. When they rejected me, I fought back, became belligerent and cocky and was afraid all the time."
(Standing before a California judge in 1961 on his drug addiction) I had everything. I was earning more than $50,000 a year, working steadily with good parts. Then I started putting all my spare time in my arm. I'm not really sure why I started using narcotics. I was 17 when I first experimented with the stuff. In no time at all I was using whatever was available, mostly heroin, because I had the money to pay for it.
A child lives in a world of its own, so, logically, a successful story for children must strike a chord in that world; possibly involve something he would like to do if he had the chance, like fly with his own wings or go down a rabbit hole, but above all, it must be something he can understand. Anything a child understands, chances are he will enjoy. However, everyone seems to enjoy these successful, so-called children's stories. For instance, you'll never meet a truthful person who says he doesn't like movie cartoons, especially a man. Someone said that women were always women, and men were always children. - in the Humboldt Guardian, June 24, 1954
--------------------------------
Date of Birth
3 March 1937, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
Date of Death
30 March 1968, New York City, New York, USA (conclusive coronary arteriosclerosis)
Birth Name
Robert Cletus Driscoll
Biography
Bobby Driscoll was a natural-born actor, discovered just by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CAL. and then convincing in anything he ever undertook on the movie screen and on television throughout his about seventeen years spanning career (1943-1960), which includes such notable movie screen appearances like in "The Fighting Sullivans", 1944, "Song Of The South",1946, "So Dear To My Heart", 1948 and "The Window",1949, which was not only the sleeper of the year 1949 but even earned him his Academy Award in March 1950 as the outstanding juvenile actor of the year 1949. For his role as Jim Hawkins in Walt Disney's "Treasure Island", 1950 he eventually received his Hollywood Star on 1560 Vine Street, and in 1954 he was chosen in a nation-wide poll for a Milky Way Gold Star Award (for his work on TV and radio). But all the more tragic, then, was his fruitless struggle to find a place in a pitiless adolescent world after severe acne had stalled his acting career at 16, when his face was no longer charming and his voice smooth enough to even be used for voice-over jobs, although his last big movie hit was significantly the voice of animated "Peter Pan", 1953, for which he was also the live-action model. When his contract with the Disney studios was prematurely terminated shortly after the release of Peter Pan in late March of 1953, his mother additionally took him from the talent-supporting Hollywood Professional School, which he attended by then. On his new School, the public Westwood University High School, on which he graduated in 1955, all of a sudden his former stardom became more burden than advantage, and although he successfully continued acting on TV until at least 1957 and could even manage it to get two final screen roles, in "The Scarlet Coat", 1955 and opposite of Mark Damon and Connie Stevens in "The Party Crashers", 1958, his life became more and more a roller coaster ride that included several encounters with the law and his eventual sentencing as a drug addict in October 1961. But released in early 1962, rehabilitated and eager to make a comeback, Bobby was ignored by the very industry that once had raised and nurtured him, - just because of his record as a convict and former drug addict. First famous... now infamous. Hoping to revive his career on the stage after his parole had expired in 1964, he eventually traveled to New York, only to learn that his reputation had preceded him, and no one wanted to hire him there, either. After a final appearance in Piero Heliczer's Underground movie "Dirt", in 1965 and a short art-period at Andy Warhol's so-called Factory, he disappeared into the underground, thoroughly dispirited, and his funds depleted, where on March 30, 1968, two playing children found his dead body in an abandoned East Village tenement. Believed to be an unclaimed and homeless person, he was then buried in an unmarked pauper's grave on Hart Island, where he remained until now.
Spouse
Marilyn Jean Rush (8 March 1957 - 1960) (divorced) 3 children
Marilyn Jean Rush (3 December 1956 - ?) (annulled) 3 children
------------------------------
Trivia
Was the first actor to sign long-term deal with Walt Disney's animation dept. When found dead, his identity was unknown and he was buried as a "John Doe" in pauper's grave. A year later, fingerprints finally revealed his identity.
Driscoll's body was discovered in an abandoned Greenwich Village tenement by two children playing there on March 30, 1968.
His voice was used for Walt Disney's feature Peter Pan (1953) and an actual "acting" performance was filmed, then rotoscoped for the animated character.
One of cinema's most critically acclaimed boy actors, he won a special Academy Award at age 12 as the "outstanding juvenile actor" of 1949 for his excellent work in the films So Dear to My Heart (1948) and The Window (1949).
Even though his character was animated he was the first boy ever to play Peter Pan. Before then only women played Peter Pan.
Buried in a mass grave on New York's Hart Island, better known as Potter's Field.
Even though he was the studio's first contract player, Disney terminated Driscoll's second long-term contract (covering seven years) three years early, in 1953, weeks after the theatrical release of Peter Pan. It is generally believed that his severe acne was the reason. This prevented him from playing other feature roles for the studio that would seem to be tailor-made for him, like Johnny Tremain and The Light in the Forest.
----------------------------------
Personal Quotes
(on his rise and fall in Hollywood) "I have found that memories are not very useful. I was carried on a silver platter and then dumped into the garbage can."
"He's got a great talent. I've worked with a lot of child players in my time, but none of them bore the promise that seems inherent in young Driscoll." -- Don Ameche
(as a child) "I'm going to save my money and go to college, then become a G-man."
(on his adolescence) "I really feared people. The other kids didn't accept me. They treated me as one apart. I tried desperately to be one of the gang. When they rejected me, I fought back, became belligerent and cocky and was afraid all the time."
(Standing before a California judge in 1961 on his drug addiction) I had everything. I was earning more than $50,000 a year, working steadily with good parts. Then I started putting all my spare time in my arm. I'm not really sure why I started using narcotics. I was 17 when I first experimented with the stuff. In no time at all I was using whatever was available, mostly heroin, because I had the money to pay for it.
A child lives in a world of its own, so, logically, a successful story for children must strike a chord in that world; possibly involve something he would like to do if he had the chance, like fly with his own wings or go down a rabbit hole, but above all, it must be something he can understand. Anything a child understands, chances are he will enjoy. However, everyone seems to enjoy these successful, so-called children's stories. For instance, you'll never meet a truthful person who says he doesn't like movie cartoons, especially a man. Someone said that women were always women, and men were always children. - in the Humboldt Guardian, June 24, 1954