[Movie + Child Actor = Box Office Bonanza]!

[DaveTheDude]

[Movie + Child Actor = Box-Office Bonanza]!
Hollywood went with this formula for years.

There are so many vintage films that featured child actors.
My favorite has to be Jackie Cooper in "The Champ".

It would be easy to dismiss "The Champ" as merely a manipulative tear-jerker. Possibly, but if you're going to be manipulated at least have it done by the best.

There is nothing slick here. Director King Vidor captured the desolate seediness of Depression-era Tijuana. The film's climactic fight scene is very realistic. Wallace Beery won the Oscar for his role as the Champ but he could very well have shared it with young Jackie Cooper as his wise beyond his years son, Deke.

As a kid I remember waiting up til 11 o'clock at night to see the Late Show or even the Late Late Show just to see this dynamic father/son duo.
The chemistry is dynamic between the lovably grizzled Beery and the heart-rending Cooper. Cooper certainly turned on the waterworks in this film. His long crying jag at the end, tore audiences up back in 1931. And it still does today. Who said big lugs like me can't shed a tear or two!

Do you have a favorite child actor?
Check out these sites to help you make a selection.
http://www.classicmoviekids.com/actors.htm
http://www.younghollywoodhof.com/

 

[tina65]

I like Daniel Jacob Radcliffe from the movie Harry Potter he did a fabulous job in all series of the movie. I watch every movie of Daniel Jacob Radcliffe. He is the best child actor for me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Matthew "Stymie" Beard had the finest comic timing of any child actor I ever saw. Watch the "ham and eggs" scene from "Dogs is Dogs" and you'll see a master comedian at work.

 

[31 Model A]

Our Gang (Lil Rascals), Shirley Temple, Margret O'Brian, Freddy Bartholomew, Jackie Cooper, Jackie Coogen....etc etc...they were all great. Only Margret O'Brian is still alive today.....if memory serves me correctly.

A bit of trivia...what two on screen child sweethearts ended up being buried in the same cemetery not far from each other years after???

 

[HudsonHawk]

Matthew "Stymie" Beard had the finest comic timing of any child actor I ever saw. Watch the "ham and eggs" scene from "Dogs is Dogs" and you'll see a master comedian at work.

Child actors are rarely funny because they lack that comedic timing. One who has it is extremely rare. To compensate, producers will use over the top gags or pair them with adults to get that effect. The Home Alone movies are a good example. Macaulay Culkin is simply not funny. The slapstick with Pesci and Stern (who has great comedic timing) is what garnered the laughs.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Our Gang (Lil Rascals), Shirley Temple, Margret O'Brian, Freddy Bartholomew, Jackie Cooper, Jackie Coogen....etc etc...they were all great. Only Margret O'Brian is still alive today.....if memory serves me correctly.

There are several Our Gang actors still living. There are even a couple from the Silent Era, including Jean Darling. There are a few from the later years, with Robert Black being the most notorious.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Child actors are rarely funny because they lack that comedic timing. One who has it is extremely rare. To compensate, producers will use over the top gags or pair them with adults to get that effect. The Home Alone movies are a good example. Macaulay Culkin is simply not funny. The slapstick with Pesci and Stern (who has great comedic timing) is what garnered the laughs.

Stymie used to talk in interviews about how Stan Laurel took him under his wing on the Roach lot -- and how, in turn, he learned a lot about comedy from watching Laurel and Hardy in action.

I think a big part of the problem with child actors and comedy is that there just aren't that any real movie *comedians* left anymore. There are a lot of actors who do comedy, but movie comedians in the twenties-thirties sense are as dead as the dodo. The kids don't learn timing and other tricks of comedy anymore because there's nobody left to really teach it to them. Modern movie comedy is more about reciting jokes than in being an actual comedian.

What this world really needs are some good, cheap two-reel comedies. Find some funny people, let them do funny things on the screen for twenty minutes, and you'll end up with a whole new crop of real comedians.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There was TV station here in SoCal back in the '70s that used to air the Our Gang comedies and Stymie, along with Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, used to do promos for the station.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Stymie used to talk in interviews about how Stan Laurel took him under his wing on the Roach lot -- and how, in turn, he learned a lot about comedy from watching Laurel and Hardy in action.

The ubiquitous derby hat that Beard always wore was a gift from Laurel.

 

[31 Model A]

I have heard and read that Carl Dean Switzer was quite the bully when not in his Alfalfa part. I think my favorite was Buckwheat.


Darla and Alfalfa are buried in the same cemetery.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Switzer was something of a prankster. His favorite was to urinate on the studio lights during a lunch break and then when shooting resumed the heat from the lights would create an overpowering stench that drove everybody from the set.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When he was sick of working for the day, he'd open up the camera when the cameraman was on his break, and jam a huge wad of gum into the gearbox. No more shooting that day.

Alfalfa's brother Harold, who appeared in a few shorts alongside his brother, also came to a sad end -- he shot himself to death after murdering a customer in a business dispute. Clearly the family had serious temper issues.

 

[31 Model A]

When he was sick of working for the day, he'd open up the camera when the cameraman was on his break, and jam a huge wad of gum into the gearbox. No more shooting that day.

Alfalfa's brother Harold, who appeared in a few shorts alongside his brother, also came to a sad end -- he shot himself to death after murdering a customer in a business dispute. Clearly the family had serious temper issues.

Didn't Alfalfa's end come over another business deal involving dogs or was that his brother?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Alfalfa's argument was over dogs, yes -- Harold's was over a washing-machine repair bill. As I say, serious anger issues.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A child actress you don't hear much about anymore is Jane Withers -- she was never an above-the-title star, but she was probably the best bratty little sister on the screen during the late thirties.

I always considered her a role model, especially after she grew up to be Josephine the Plumber. I think of her often when I'm unstopping a drain at work.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Alfalfa's other movie roles

Going My Way (1944)

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

The High and the Mighty (1954)

The Ten Commandments (1956)

and finally...
From Our Gang to Motorcycle Gang (1957)
his last movie

 

[HudsonHawk]

A child actress you don't hear much about anymore is Jane Withers -- she was never an above-the-title star, but she was probably the best bratty little sister on the screen during the late thirties.

I always considered her a role model, especially after she grew up to be Josephine the Plumber. I think of her often when I'm unstopping a drain at work.

My favorite Jane Withers story is the one about her and James Dean's shirt. She and Dean became friends filming Giant, and he let her wash his favorite pink shirt, as he was afraid to send it out to be laundered for fear it would be lost. He gave it to her to wash the day before he died, expecting he'd pick it up when he returned. Withers says she still has that shirt.

 

[EmergencyIan]

Matthew "Stymie" Beard had the finest comic timing of any child actor I ever saw. Watch the "ham and eggs" scene from "Dogs is Dogs" and you'll see a master comedian at work.

I agree wholeheartedly!

By the way, I probably haven't seen that short in over 20 years, but it's still vivid in my mind. I think of it every time "Stymie" comes to mind.

- Ian

 

[31 Model A]

I agree wholeheartedly!

By the way, I probably haven't seen that short in over 20 years, but it's still vivid in my mind. I think of it every time "Stymie" comes to mind.

- Ian

Enjoy..............

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&mid=F156F7A26507D8E01D12F156F7A26507D8E01D12

 

[ChiTownScion]

A child actress you don't hear much about anymore is Jane Withers -- she was never an above-the-title star, but she was probably the best bratty little sister on the screen during the late thirties.

I always considered her a role model, especially after she grew up to be Josephine the Plumber. I think of her often when I'm unstopping a drain at work.

Brings to mind the time that my wife tried to fix a basement drain in our first house herself, wanting to save a few bucks by not calling a licensed plumber to do the job. She made a bad situation worse, cost us more than we would have paid for the repair in the first place....and good naturedly wore the handle of "Josephine" for about a month after that.