Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. After his release, he focused his attention on the avant-garde art scene. Thanks to the money he saved up while working for Disney, Driscoll had the cash to experiment with a wide variety of drugs, and his experiments led him down a dark path with no return. During the middle of production, authorities discovered that Driscoll did not have a valid British work permit. Unfortunately, Driscoll's fans had no idea about his sad fate until 1972 when the Disney film "Song of the South," featured in, was re-released. As a result, the city buried Driscolls unclaimed body in an unmarked paupers grave on Hart Island. Discovered by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CA. The striking force and terrifying impact of this RKO melodrama is chiefly due to Bobby's brilliant acting, for the whole effect would have been lost were there any suspicion of doubt about the credibility of this pivotal character. Reporters looking into Driscoll discovered the ghastly tale of Driscolls career and his end. The first Disney film, Song of the South, was re-released in 1971-1972. They were allowed to remain for six weeks to prepare an appeal, and director Byron Haskin hastily shot all of Driscoll's close-ups,[16] using his British stand-in to film missing location scenes after his parents and he had returned to California. His casting was suggested by screenwriter Michael Kanin. The award was presented as a special miniature Oscar statuette for "the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949" for his roles in So Dear to My Heart and The Window, both released that year. On March 30, 1968, two playing children found his dead body in an abandoned East Village tenement. This put Driscoll and the entire production in a sticky situation. Things came to a head when Driscoll hit puberty. Historys most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. [6] Driscoll then played the lead character in Song of the South (1946), which introduced live action into the producer's films in conjunction with extensive animated footage. Howard Hughes, who had bought RKO the previous year, considered the film unworthy of release and Driscoll not much of an actor, so delayed its release. By all accounts, he was your average little kid living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ex-husband of Marilyn Verna Driscoll Hughes probably didnt expect much of a reaction, but he couldnt have been more wrong. First famous now infamous. But Bobby Driscollwho was the voice and the animation model for the studio's 1953 animated classic Peter Pan had an experience with the company that was particularly bleak. When The Window hit theaters, itand more importantly, Driscolls performancewas a hit with audiences. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. Actor: Peter Pan. When a doctor . At one point, Bobby became part of The Factory, Andy Warhol's art collective in Greenwich Village, New York. Actor Bobby Driscoll at age12 in a studio portrait taken in 1950 | Source: Wikimedia Commons/ NBC Television Network, Bobby Driscoll 1950, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons, It turned out the barber's son was in showbiz, which made it easy to get an appointment with his agent, who helped Driscoll land a small role opposite Margaret O'Brien in the 1943 film "Lost Angel.". The song soon became a popular and much-recorded jazz standard, described as "without doubt one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-2lkEFwiL0. She asked for help from Disney Studio officials and a fingerprint match led to Driscolls grave on Hart Island. Disney slated Driscoll for two more films: Tom Sawyer and Robin Hood. [30], For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Driscoll received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in 1960. But this was only the beginning. Bobby is a high school graduate. She reached out to Disney for help, which eventually led her to the NYPD. While those roles got Driscolls acting career rolling, it was his next role that took the little boys career to the next level. His parents had normal, respectable jobs. Hughes dismissed Driscoll later in 1953, and he did so in a terrible manner by denying Driscoll entry into the studio. It was so popular that Driscoll reprised his role the following year for a radio adaption of the movie. Disney put a lot of faith into Driscoll for the film, and it definitely paid off. Although the charges were dismissed, this event marked the beginning of Driscolls many future encounters with the law. late) 1967", "Semina Culture Wallace Berman & His Circle", "A Return Trip to a Faraway Place Called Underground", "Santa Monica Museum Of Art Official Homepage", "DIRT- Review and a downloadable clip of the so-called "Bath-sequence", "Hart Island (Potter's Field) Official Homepage (controlled by the "Department Of Correction" and inaccessible to visitors)", "With Re-Release Of Disney Film Child Star's Tragic Death Described", "Bobby Driscoll Won't Be Around For Reissue Of Song of the South", "Benjy Ferree Come Back To The Five and Dime", "Benjy Ferree Announces New Album, Channels Former Child Star Bobby Driscoll", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bobby_Driscoll&oldid=1140629992, University High School (Los Angeles) alumni, Articles with dead external links from September 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Episode: "S01, E15, The Ordeal of the S-38", Episode: "Incident of Fear in the Streets", Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten, hosted by Johnny Mercer, Bobby Driscoll, Luana Patten, Walt Disney and James Baskett, hosted by Johnny Mercer, Capitol Records (CDF 3000) narrated by John Beal, RCA Victor (Y-416) narrated by Bobby Driscoll, Byron Haskin interviewed by Joe Adamson, The Directors Guild Of America and The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Metuchen, N.Y. and London, 1984, This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 00:36. This was already sad enough, but it wasnt even the most tragic fact about his end. Bobby Driscoll and Connie Stevens in The Party Crashers (1958) After his appearance in The Party Crashers, the party truly started crashing around Driscoll. His parents had normal, respectable jobs. Hollywood biographer Marc Eliot, author of "Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince," saw the perfect embodiment of the American child in Driscoll. Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIIIs rejected queenbut few people know her even darker history. Instead, they sent Driscoll to West Los Angeles University High School. After his dismissal, the now teenaged Driscoll looked to other Hollywood studios for work. Driscoll was very talented, but he did not know that it all hinged on his facial features. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? 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. Their barber's son, an actor, got Bobby an audition at MGM for a role in the family drama Lost Angel (1943), which starred Margaret O'Brien. Between 1948 and 1957, he performed on a number of radio productions, which included a special broadcast version of Treasure Island in January 1951 and of Peter Pan in December 1953. This resulted in a fingerprint match at the New York City Police Department, which located his burial on Hart Island. Late in 1961, he was sentenced as a drug addict and imprisoned at the Narcotic Rehabilitation Center of the California Institution for Men in Chino, California. It wasnt until one year later that Driscolls family learned of his passing, and the results were agonizingly tragic. His unclaimed body was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in New York City's Potter's Field on Hart Island. Both Driscolls family and Disney received hefty fines, and they ordered Driscoll out of the country. A lot of pressure was on Driscoll to perform. Even more amazingly, Driscoll became the first male to portray Peter on film. On the surface, this sounded like an enormously successful marriage, but for Driscoll, this wasnt the case. Driscoll's brief, two-minute debut[4] helped him win the role of young Al Sullivan, the youngest of the five Sullivan brothers, in the 20th Century Fox's World War II drama The Fighting Sullivans (1944) with Thomas Mitchell and Anne Baxter. After leaving the center in 1962, he tried in vain to search for work. Some of his works were considered outstanding,[52][53] and a few of his surviving collages and cardboard mailers were temporarily exhibited in Los Angeles at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. In ill health due to his substance abuse, and with his funds depleted, his body was discovered on March 30, 1968, in an abandoned building in the East Village of Manhattan. He left his family at 16 and moved to New York City to study acting. In a last-ditch attempt to distance himself from his Disney days, Driscoll began using the name Robert Driscoll when looking for acting jobs. Driscoll was convicted for drug addiction and was sent to Narcotic Rehabilitation Center, at Chino, California. From there, Driscoll quickly became one of Disneys biggest money-makers. His last known appearances on TV were small roles in two single-season series: The Best of the Post, a syndicated anthology series adapted from stories published in The Saturday Evening Post magazine, and The Brothers Brannagan, an unsuccessful crime series starring Stephen Dunne and Mark Roberts. The young actors days of taking on small movie roles were officially overbut this new life would eventually lead him down a dark and dangerous path. Driscoll's salary at Disney had been raised to $1,750 per week[26] and compared to his salary, Driscoll had little work from 1952 on. Every cent he made went straight to fueling his addiction. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. Please fill in your e-mail so we can share with you our top stories. Driscoll tried to remain relevant in Hollywood by appearing in several TV shows for years; however, he had already passed his peak and was on the decline. In 1950, Disney cast Driscoll as Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island, the studios first all live-action film. He briefly worked as a carpenter and cared for the young children he had with his ex-wife. In 1965, a year after his parole expired, Driscoll made the decision to relocate to New York City. Driscolls legacy as an actor is even harder to keep alive. He won an Oscar at 12, and. Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. As a result, Driscoll was unable to work on the two major pictures that Disney planned for him. "A Tribute to Shirley Booth, paragraph: Dean Martin on Shirley Booth Dean Martin recalling an encounter with Driscoll at a party in the mid-1950s, literally terming him "Pupils In Hollywood School Drew More pay Than Their Teachers", "Strangest Grammar School In Nation Found In Hollywood", "Bobby's graduation at Hollywood Professional School", "The Long Road Back Bobby Driscoll, a Film Star at 6, an Addict at 17, Sent to Chino", "Bobby Driscoll, Friend Denies Narcotic Charge This Is No Act", "Actor Bobby Driscoll, 19, Seized On Dope Charge", "Actor Driscoll reveals To Plan To Rewed Girl, 19", "Actor Driscoll Needs Job As Clerk To Finance Marriage", "The Long Road back Bobby Driscoll, a Film Star At 6, An Addict At 17, Sent To Chino", "A personal Letter to his girl friend of then, which he closes with "Bob". He also gave education a try, enrolling at institutions like Stanford and UCLA but ultimately dropped out. 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