In December of 1956, Driscoll made the decision to elope with his longtime girlfriend, Marilyn Jean Rush. Get the best of Fox News' entertainment coverage, right in your inbox. (Getty Images). According to Driscoll, The other kids didnt accept meWhen they rejected me, I fought back, became belligerent and cockyand was afraid all the time. Alone and friendless, Driscoll turned to drugs at the age of 17. Visit Celebs In-depth for more interesting Biography and details on Celeb Life. "We were buddies," said Gray. . According to Entertainment Weekly, he left home at age 16 and headed to New York City to study acting. Driscolls moment of peace was painfully brief. By early 1962, Driscolls prison sentence ended, but it utterly destroyed his chances of becoming an actor ever again. He became addicted to narcotics, and was sentenced to prison for illicit drug use. Hosted. Driscoll encountered increasing indifference from the other Hollywood studios. Yet all the more heartbreaking, after extreme acne had derailed his acting career at 16, was Bobby's fruitless quest to find a spot in a remorseless society. Instead, they sent Driscoll to West Los Angeles University High School. "There are a number of interesting characters from New York Citythe cool people. That's the real story of Hollywood. Driscolls legacy as an actor is even harder to keep alive. "He got into heroin. What they found was the body of Bobby Driscoll in a cot, with two empty beer bottles nearby and surrounded by religious pamphlets. After his deal with the Disney company was terminated abruptly soon after Peter Pan's release in late March 1953, his mother also withdrew him from the talent-supporting Hollywood Professional School. All rights reserved. You see, Hughes really had it out for child actors like Driscoll; he thought that kids like Driscoll were incredibly annoying. As Driscolls acne grew worse, Hughes used his influence over Disney to get rid of Driscoll in the most mortifying fashion possible. They treated me as one apart. "A lovely guy, a dear friend. Driscoll tried to find workbut reportedly said, No one will hire me because of my arrests. He worked as a carpenter until his 1964 parole, after which Driscoll moved to New York City in the hopes of finding more sympathetic casting agents. From there on, his life turned into a shocking mess with neither fame nor money on his account. Bobby Driscoll is presented by Donald O'Connor with special Academy Award at age 12 as the outstandi. Driscoll also engaged in a more dangerous form of recreationheroin. He just never found his way and made that choice.". By the time Driscoll voiced Peter Pan at 16, however, he no longer had the impish face that kept him gainfully employed as a youth. In 1968, two boys discovered his decaying corpse on a cot after playing in a deserted part of Manhattans underground. or redistributed. Disney placed young Driscoll and an even younger Luana Patten under contract, making Driscoll one of the first actors to ever be placed under a contract to the House of Mouse. He received an Academy Juvenile Award for outstanding performances in So Dear to My Heart and The Window. 115K views Sad Ending of BOBBY DRISCOLL | Disney's Troubled Child Star Daze with Jordan the Lion Part 2, Chap.1 | Walt Disney American Experience | PBS Frank Sinatra Revealed Marilyn Monroe's. "I do remember living in Pacific Palisades in a house that my dad owned andseeing a bunch of pot on the table. 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=1152450499, 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, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2023, 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 30 April 2023, at 09:07. Embittered by this, he said, "I have found that memories are not very useful. On top of that, the head honchos at Disney planned more film projects involving Driscoll. He was a child actor who had starred in several films after being discovered at a barbershop at the age of five in . Nothing about his early childhood indicated a future career with Walt Disney. Eventually, Driscoll convinced his parents to re-enroll him to the Hollywood Professional School, where his grades improved. Released in early 1962, rehabilitated and ready to make a return, regardless of his past as a criminal and convicted drug addict, Bobby was overlooked by the same community that had once supported and nourished him. "What's the point of poking at it?" The authorities in the United Kingdom allowed Driscoll six weeks to prepare an appeal. "Was earning $50,000 a year working steadily with good parts. Watch:Lost Boy: The Bobby Driscoll Story. Driscoll is well renowned for his impressive contributions to big and small screens for 17 years from 1943 to 1960. ), Media related to Bobby Driscoll at Wikimedia Commons. Bobby Driscoll is known for Long Lost Daughter (2018). "I did study him for a long time. In no time at all I was using whatever was availablemostly heroin, because I had the money to pay for it., Driscoll estimated that he spent more than $100,000 of his earnings and confessed that he had damaged his most important relationships. And he didnt take the news well.". "Was earning $50,000 a yearworking steadily with good parts. In 2011, the Hart Island Project was created to make it easier for people to find out whose remains ended up on the one-mile stretch of land. The news was absolutely devastating. Unfortunately for Driscoll, Walts affection seemed to run dry after the filming of Peter Pan, and it led to the young actors early decline. During all this time Ive hurt a lot of people especially my parents, my wife, my children, and myself, said the former actor. ", That's what a New York City charity is trying to do for Driscoll and all the other people who were buried and forgotten on Hart Island. Former Disney child star Bobby Driscoll rose to fame at age 9 as "the first human being signed for Disney Productions.". "Bobby was a curiosity. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. As the years passed, Hughess disdain for Driscoll seemingly turned into downright hatred. "A barber in Pasadena told me I should be in the movies, so one Sunday he invited us out to his home and his son was there," recalled Driscoll during a 1946 radio interview. After doing some research, I uncovered that other child actors, who worked for Disney, suffered not much better: Luana Patten: costarred with Bobby Driscoll; she married at 16; married and divorced two more times before dying of respiratory failure at age 57. 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. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. He didn't want Bobby Driscoll to be with Disney anymore. The family moved to Los Angeles when a doctor advised the father to relocate to California because he was suffering from work-related handling of asbestos. A month later, Bobby was arrested for creating a fake $45 cheque, for which he pleaded guilty. That was his notification that he was no longer needed there.. He served as the animation model and provided the voice for the title role in Peter Pan (1953). [42] They had two daughters and one son, but the relationship did not last. He thought they were precocious, werent real, and were incredibly annoying. When it was released in May 1949, it became a surprise hit. I had everythingwas earning more than $50,000 a yearworking steadily with good parts, Driscoll told Judge Allen Miller at a hearing, according to the Los Angeles Times. It was so popular that Driscoll reprised his role the following year for a radio adaption of the movie. Bach was my guy, that was it for me. The family moved to California in 1943 on the advice of Cletus' doctor, who said the elder Driscoll was . [25] During a project meeting following the completion of Peter Pan, though, Disney stated that he now saw Driscoll as best suited for roles as a young bully rather than a likeable protagonist. During the middle of production, authorities discovered that Driscoll did not have a valid British work permit. Shes played Jack Nicholsons daughter, Gwyneth Paltrows sister, and Nicolas Cages estranged wife. The world, meanwhile, did not learn about Driscolls sad ending until 1972, when Disney rereleased Song of the South and reporters asked about the films once promising nine-year-old star. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. The feature was filmed in the United Kingdom, and during production, Driscoll was found to not have a valid British work permit, so his family and Disney were fined and ordered to leave the country. Includes such notable movie screen appearances as The Fighting Sullivans (1944), Song of the . There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. Bobby Driscoll was officially married to his wife, Marilyn Jean Rush, for three years from 1957 to 1960.Source: Pinterest. The famed Disney animator Mary Blair, for instance, reportedly died from complications related to alcoholism, but that did not stop her from being inducted in 1991. Although Driscoll did much to bolster Disney during a time of crisis, he is still, to this day, not a part of Disney Legends, the Disney equivalent of a Hall of Fame. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. At Factinate, were dedicated to getting things right. The filma live-action and animated mash-upfinds the forgotten duo reuniting decades after their fleeting success to rescue an old friend, now with the cynical perspective of former flash stars burned by the industry. A lot of pressure was on Driscoll to perform. When Driscoll appeared on television, Disney Studios forced him to use heavy makeup to cover up his acne, which mustve been humiliating for Driscoll. In this case, that boy's twisted road to manhood ultimately detoured into (and out of) jail, through multiple marriages (and divorces) to the same woman, and finally winding through Andy Warhol's Factory to a tragic end. In 1944, 20th Century Fox offered Driscoll a role in their WWII drama, The Fighting Sullivans. Driscoll was born in Iowa on March 3, 1937. [10] Patten and he appeared with Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers in the live-action teaser for the Pecos Bill segment of Disney's cartoon compilation Melody Time (also 1948). The Fighting Sullivans (1944), 20th Century Fox. It wasnt until one year later that Driscolls family learned of his passing, and the results were agonizingly tragic. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action, Driscoll the Juvenile Academy Award in 1950, Bobby Driscoll's Hollywood Walk of Fame star, Disney Legendsthe studio's version of a Hall of Fame, Wrong turn: Amy Locane's sad journey from movies and TV to prison. The medical examiner determined the cause of death as "socclusive coronary arteriosclerosis," or hardening of the arteries. This was the final nail in the coffin for Driscolls life and career. Later, Bobby and Didi relocated to Beverly Glen, and the couple began to smuggle cocaine into New York City. Well, not exactly. In 1950, Disney cast Driscoll as Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island, the studios first all live-action film. First, the exact spot where the city buried Driscoll remains a mystery.
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