Audiences warmly received Driscoll and his pert nose and freckled face, leading to even more film roles for the seven-year-old actor. The other film RKO had in mind for Driscoll, however, presented a whole new challenge for the child actor. Perhaps Driscoll hoped that Rush would change him for the better, but what actually happened was far, far worse. He landed two final screen roles: with Cornel Wilde in The Scarlet Coat (1955) and opposite Mark Damon, Connie Stevens, and Frances Farmer in The Party Crashers (1958). Bobby died penniless and alone in an abandoned East Village, New York City tenement and is buried in Potter's Field on nearby Hart Island. Outside of his career, Driscolls private life was going just as poorly. Unfortunately for Driscoll, Walts affection seemed to run dry after the filming of Peter Pan, and it led to the young actors early decline. 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. After his dismissal, the now teenaged Driscoll looked to other Hollywood studios for work. | Photo: Getty Images. He tried to seek serious acting roles. This revelation comes from a friend of the late voice actor, Billy Gray. Driscolls desire to learn dazzled the director, who ended up choosing Driscoll over the other 40 applicants. While Disney likes to believe it has a squeaky-clean image, one look at Bobby Driscoll will tell you that things are never that simple. For example, Haskin recalled in his memoirs that Disney, although interested in Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate story as a full-length cartoon, always planned to cast Driscoll as Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. 'Treasure Island became a worldwide hit and many new projects were planned with Driscoll as the lead, but somehow they didnt work-out. 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. Nothing about his early childhood indicated a future career with Walt Disney. Critics praised Driscolls work, with some of his art even being temporarily displayed in Los Angeles in the Santa Monica Museum of Art. On March 23, 1950, Driscoll won a Special Juvenile Academy Award as the Outstanding Juvenile Actor of 1949 for his performances in So Dear to My Heart, and The Window., In Walt Disneys all-live-action picture Treasure Island (based on Robert Louis Stevensons 1883 novel), Driscoll played Jim Hawkins.. The part for Driscoll was a tiny onehe would only be on screen for a grand total of two minutesbut the competition was fierce. Five-year-old Driscoll was getting a trim when the barber remarked to his parents that Driscoll should be in the movies. The barber then connected them to his son, who was an actor himself. The award made Driscoll even more valuable in the eyes of Uncle Walt, and it led to Driscolls next big Disney hit. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark historyor the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. Lets just, Song of the South (1946), Walt Disney Productions, So Dear to My Heart (1948), Walt Disney Productions, Treasure Island (1950), Walt Disney Productions, The Party Crashers (1958), Paramount Pictures, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIIIs First Wife, Scandalous Facts About Lady Caroline Lamb, The High Society Outcast, Strange Facts of Nick Adams, The Enigmatic Celebrity, Straight Up Facts About Paula Abdul, The Queen Of Reality TV, Heartbreaking Facts About Desi Arnaz, The Man Who Loved Lucy. Over the next year, Driscoll ran into trouble with the authorities again and again. Bobby Driscoll starred in Song of the South, Melody Time, Treasure Island, and most notably was the voice and reference model for Peter Pan. The short and tragic life of Disney child star Bobby Driscoll is explored in the new documentary Lost Boy: The Bobby Driscoll Story. He wanted Driscoll gone, and sadly the boy's morphing features were enough grounds. All that is known is that Driscolls body is somewhere in the Northern part of the island, surrounded by deer, red raccoons, and a bird sanctuary. Driscolls dad was nearing the end of his life, and Driscolls mom wanted to reunite father and son one last time. During the middle of production, authorities discovered that Driscoll did not have a valid British work permit. Please let us know if a fact weve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect its inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. Browse through Bobby's personal letters, written to friends, family, and people of notoriety. He also gave education a try, enrolling at institutions like Stanford and UCLA but ultimately dropped out. 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. No identification was on the body, and photos shown around the neighborhood yielded no positive identification. Driscoll still had Robin Hood to look forward to, at leastRight? [60][61][62], Driscoll received an Academy Juvenile Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the 22nd Academy Awards presentation in 1950. Unfortunate circumstances made it difficult to keep Driscolls memory alive, however. 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. What Driscoll did was simple, but revealed a curiosity for the world around him which deeply impressed the director for Lost Angels. Although Peter Pan was largely successful, Walt Disney himself didnt like the film. Robert Cletus Driscoll (March 3, 1937 c. March 30, 1968) was an American actor who performed on film and television from 1943 to 1960. Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. He won awards and also befriended his castmates along the way. The only son of an insulation salesman and former schoolteacher, Driscoll was discovered at the age of 5 while getting a trim. I tried desperately to be one of the gang. Most still thought of Driscoll as Disneys kid actor, which made it nearly impossible for Driscoll to find work as a serious character actor. Beginning in 1953 and for most of the next three years, the bulk of his work was on television, on such anthology and drama series as Fireside Theater, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Front Row Center, Navy Log, TV Reader's Digest, Climax!, Ford Theatre, Studio One, Dragnet, Medic, and Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. Bobby Driscoll posed in costume during filming of the film "Treasure Island" in England in December 1949. The first Disney film, Song of the South, was re-released in 1971-1972. At the end of his six weeks, the authorities booted Driscoll and his family out of the country, and Disney filmed the rest of Driscolls scenes with a stand-in. Summertime "Summertime" is an aria composed in 1934 by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, and Ira Gershwin. By. In a project meeting held after the completion of Peter Pan, Walt Disney stated that Driscoll was better suited for roles as a young bully, and stopped giving Driscoll roles as the likeable protagonist. In 1969, Driscolls mother tried to search for him, as his father was nearing death. In no time I was using whatever was available mostly heroin, because I had the money to pay for it. Bobby Driscoll had a great start in life, but somewhere along the line, he went off track, and according to his friend Billy Gray, it was a choice he made. 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. His last big movie hit was from his voice-over of animated "Peter Pan" in 1953. Robert Cletus Driscoll was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1937. The couple was later rewed in a ceremony that took place in Los Angeles in March 1957. Driscoll even got a chance to act one last time in the movie Dirt, an experimental film directed by Piero Heliczer. View Collection. [19] Driscoll also was scheduled to portray a youthful follower of Robin Hood following Treasure Island, again with Robert Newton, who would play Friar Tuck,[20] but Driscoll's run-in with British immigration made this impossible.[21]. This is a business registration address for Paul Wink. In December of 1956, Driscoll made the decision to elope with his longtime girlfriend, Marilyn Jean Rush. "A barber in Pasadena told me I should be in the movies, so one. While the film received mixed critical reactions and was rather controversial upon release, Song of the South netted Walt Disney $226,000, which is the equivalent of over $3 million in todays dollars. In his biography on Disney, Marc Elliot described Driscoll as the producer's favorite "live action" child star: "Walt often referred to Driscoll with great affection as the living embodiment of his own youth". While on a tour across the studio lot, five-year-old Driscoll noticed a mock-up ship and asked where the water was. As a result, the city buried Driscolls unclaimed body in an unmarked paupers grave on Hart Island. At one point, Bobby became part of The Factory, Andy Warhol's art collective in Greenwich Village, New York. With puberty came a severe case of acne, whichthrough no fault of his ownmarred the boys flawless face. At Factinate, were dedicated to getting things right. -. Bobby Driscoll Age & Birthday. They took him in for drug possession, battery, burglary, check kiting, and more. The news was absolutely devastating. A post mortem examination determined that he had died from heart failure caused by advanced atherosclerosis[57] from his drug use. And despite Driscolls acting talents, not everyone believed in Driscolls star power. [47], He was charged with disturbing the peace and assault with a deadly weapon, the latter after hitting one of two hecklers with a pistol who had made insulting remarks while he was washing a girlfriend's car; the charges were dropped.[48]. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. The director was impressed by the boy's curiosity and intelligence and chose him over 40 applicants.[2][3]. In the film, Driscoll portrayed Tommy Woodry, a boy that witnesses a murder, only to have no one believe him due to his reputation as a liar. It was planned as Disney's first all-live-action movie, with production beginning immediately after Song of the South,[9] but its release was delayed until late 1948 to meet the demands of Disney's co-producer and longtime distributor RKO Radio Pictures for animated content in the film. He was born Robert Cletus Driscoll in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the only child of Cletus (19011969), an insulation salesman, and Isabelle (ne Kratz; 19041981), a former schoolteacher. Advertisement At just five and a half, Robert Cletus Driscoll was discovered in a Los Angeles barbershop as he was getting his haircut. She asked for help from Disney Studio officials and a fingerprint match led to Driscolls grave on Hart Island. The story of this child actor, who starred in films like Song of the South and Peter Pan, is a heart-wrenching one. , family, and photos shown around the neighborhood yielded no positive identification, at! 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