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Jackie Coogan
Born	John Leslie Coogan, Jr. October 26, 1914(1914-10-26) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	March 1, 1984 (aged 69) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1917–1984
Spouse(s)	Betty Grable (m. 1937–1940) «start: (1937)–end+1: (1941)»"Marriage: Betty Grable to Jackie Coogan" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Coogan) Flower Parry (m. 1941–1943) «start: (1941)–end+1: (1944)»"Marriage: Flower Parry to Jackie Coogan" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Coogan) Ann McCormack (m. 1946–1951) «start: (1946)–end+1: (1952)»"Marriage: Ann McCormack to Jackie Coogan" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Coogan) Dorothea Lamphere (m. 1952–1984) «start: (1952)–end+1: (1985)»"Marriage: Dorothea Lamphere to Jackie Coogan" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Coogan)

John Leslie "Jackie" Coogan, Jr. (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family. In the interim, he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers.

Contents 1 Early life and early career 1.1 Coogan Bill 2 Later years 2.1 World War II 2.2 Television 3 Marriages and children 4 Death 5 Selected filmography 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early life and early career

Jackie Coogan was born in Los Angeles, California, to John Henry Coogan, Jr. (also known as "Big Jack" or "Jack, Sr.") (1886-1935), the son of John Henry Coogan Sr. (1853-1932), and Lilian Rita Dolliver Coogan (1892-1977, birth also has been listed at 1895). He began his acting career as an infant in both vaudeville and film, with an uncredited role in the 1917 film Skinner's Baby. Charlie Chaplin discovered him in a Los Angeles vaudeville house, doing the shimmy, a popular dance at the time, on the stage. His father, Jack Coogan, Sr. was also an actor. The boy was a natural mimic, and delighted Chaplin with his abilities in this area. As a child actor, he is best remembered for his role as Charlie Chaplin's irascible sidekick in the film classic The Kid (1921) and for the title role in Oliver Twist, directed by Frank Lloyd, the following year. He was also one of the first stars to get heavily merchandised, with peanut butter, stationery, whistles, dolls, records, and figurines just being a sample of the Coogan merchandise. He also travelled internationally to huge crowds. Many of his early films are lost or unavailable, but Turner Classic Movies recently presented The Rag Man with a new score. Coogan was famous for his pageboy haircut and his The Kid outfit of oversized overalls and cap, which was widely imitated, including by the young Scotty Beckett in the Our Gang films.

He was tutored until the age of ten, after which he attended Urban Military Academy and other prep schools, and then several colleges, including the University of Southern California. In 1932 he left Santa Clara University because of poor grades.

On May 4, 1935, Coogan's father was killed in a car crash in San Diego County that also claimed the life of Coogan's best friend Junior Durkin, a child actor best known as Huckleberry Finn in two films of the early 1930s. The accident took place just short of Coogan's twenty-first birthday; he was the sole survivor of the accident.

Jackie Coogan has his hand and foot prints in concrete out front of Grauman's Chinese Theater (now Mann's Chinese Theater), Ceremony #19, on December 12, 1931 (his former wife Betty Grable, Ceremony #68, on February 15, 1943 also). He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of 1654 Vine Street, just south of Hollywood Blvd.

[edit] Coogan Bill

As a child star, Coogan earned an estimated $3 to 4 million, but the money was taken by his mother, Lilian, and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, for extravagances such as fur coats, diamonds, and cars. He sued them in 1938 (at age 23), but after legal expenses, he only received $126,000 of the approx. $250,000 left. When Coogan fell on hard times, Charlie Chaplin gave him some financial support.

The legal battle did, however, bring attention to child actors and resulted in the state of California enacting the California Child Actor's Bill, sometimes known as the Coogan Bill or the Coogan Act. This requires that the child's employer set aside 15% of the child's earnings in a trust, and codifies such issues as schooling, work hours and time-off. Jackie's mother and stepfather attempted to soften the situation by pointing out that the child was having fun and thought he was playing. However, virtually every child star from Baby Peggy on has stated that they were keenly aware that what they were doing was work.

[edit] Later years

[edit] World War II

Coogan enlisted in the US Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested a transfer to US Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from glider school, he was made a Flight Officer and he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. He flew British troops, the Chindits, under General Orde Wingate on 5 March 1944, landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles behind Japanese lines in the Burma campaign.

[edit] Television

After the war, Coogan returned to acting, taking mostly character roles and appearing on television. He guest starred as Corbett in two episodes of NBC's The Outlaws with Barton MacLane, which aired from 1960-1962. In the 1960-1961 season, he guest starred in the episode "The Damaged Dolls" of the syndicated crime drama The Brothers Brannagan.

Coogan had a regular role in a 1962-1963 NBC series, McKeever and the Colonel. He finally found his most famous television role as Uncle Fester in ABC's The Addams Family (1964-1966). He appeared as a police officer in the Elvis Presley comedy Girl Happy in 1965. He had a role in the 1969 movie Marlowe.

In addition to The Addams Family, he appeared a number of times on the Perry Mason series, and once on Emergency! as a junkyard owner who tries to bribe the paramedics, who have come to inspect his property for fire safety. He also was featured in an episode of The Brady Bunch ("Fender Bender"), Here's Lucy and The Brian Keith Show, and he continued to guest star on television (including multiple appearances on The Partridge Family, The Wild Wild West and Hawaii Five-O) until his retirement in the middle 1970s.

[edit] Marriages and children

1. Betty Grable, married on November 20, 1937, divorced on October 11, 1939. Interment Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood California.
2. Flower Parry, married on August 10, 1941, divorced on June 29, 1943
   1. One son, John Anthony Coogan (writer/producer 3D digital & film), born March 4, 1942 in Los Angeles, California.
3. Ann McCormack, married on December 26, 1946, divorced on September 20, 1951
   1. One daughter, Joann Dolliver Coogan born April 2, 1948 in Los Angeles, California.
4. Dorothea Odetta Hanson, aka. Dorothea Lamphere, best known as Dodie, married on April 1952, they were together until his death
   1. One daughter, Leslie Diane Coogan, born November 24, 1953 in Los Angeles, California. Her son is the actor Keith Coogan, who was born January 13, 1970. He began acting in 1975. Two years after his grandfather's death in 1986 he changed his name to Keith Coogan from Keith Eric Mitchell. He played the oldest son in Adventures in Babysitting.
   2. One son, Christopher Fenton Coogan, born July 9, 1967 in Riverside County, California. He died in a motorcycle accident in Palm Springs, California, on June 29, 1990.

[edit] Death

On March 1, 1984, Coogan died of cardiac arrest at the age of 69 at Santa Monica Medical Center in Santa Monica, California.^[1] He was buried in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.

[edit] Selected filmography

• Skinner's Baby (Uncredited, 1917)
• A Day's Pleasure (1919)
• The Kid (1921)
• Peck's Bad Boy (1921)
• My Boy (1921)
• Nice and Friendly (1922)
• Trouble (1922)
• Oliver Twist (1922)
• Daddy (1923)
• Circus Days (1923)
• Long Live the King (1923)
• A Boy of Flanders (1924)
• Little Robinson Crusoe (1924)
• Hello, 'Frisco (1924)
• The Rag Man (1925)
• Old Clothes (1925)
• Johnny Get Your Hair Cut (1927)
• The Bugle Call (1927)
• Buttons (1927)
• Tom Sawyer (1930)
• Huckleberry Finn (1931)
• Girl Happy (1965)

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King: A Biography of Hollywood's Legendary Child Star, Diana Serra Cary, Scarecrow Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8108-4650-0.
• The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era by David W. Menefee. Albany: Bear Manor Media, 2007.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jackie Coogan

• Jackie Coogan at the Internet Movie Database
• Jackie Coogan at TV.com
• Photographs of Jackie Coogan
• Jackie Coogan at Find a Grave

Persondata
NAME	Coogan, Jackie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Coogan, John Leslie
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actor
DATE OF BIRTH	October 26, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH	Los Angeles, California
DATE OF DEATH	March 1, 1984
PLACE OF DEATH	Santa Monica, California