"We found out his son was in the movies, and his son got me an appointment with his agent. His agent took me out to a part.". Driscoll's parents received encouragement to get Bobby into the movie industry. "There are a number of interesting characters from New York Citythe cool people. 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. That was Warhol's perversity in full playyou know, dissipated Hollywood.". After three years of taking on minor acting roles, Driscoll got the chance of a lifetime when he caught the eye of the one and only Walt Disney. Bobby died in a deserted house in 1968, soon after his 31st birthday, in poor health because of his drug misuse, along with his dwindling funds. My daughter loves it. Driscoll never forgot about his dream of being an actor, though. . He appeared in a variety of anthology and drama series, such as Dragnet (a crime drama) and Medic (the OG medical drama). He starred in some of the Walt Disney Studios' best-known live-action pictures of that period: Song of the South (1946), So Dear to My Heart (1949), and Treasure Island (1950), as well as RKO's The Window (1949). Nothing about his early childhood indicated a future career with Walt Disney. After going into hiding in Canada, Didi returned to Los Angeles, while Bobby went to New York. Unfortunately, Driscoll could not escape the shadows of his past and ended up dropping out of both prestigious universities. We and our partners share information on your use of this website to help improve your experience. "He never showed any fear of people," she said. His parents had normal, respectable jobs. "A lovely guy, a dear friend. Despite the obstacles presented to Driscoll during production, Treasure Island was an international smash hit. He died at the age of thirty-one from drugs and. Bobby Driscoll and Connie Stevens in The Party Crashers (1958) After his appearance in The Party Crashers, the party truly started crashing around Driscoll. After a few years of experimenting with drugs, Driscoll became a full-blown addict. A year later, he welcomed his second child, a daughter in 1958. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Prison sentences were the kiss of death for Hollywood actors in those days, so after briefly working as a carpenter, Driscoll left his young children behind and moved to New York City in 1965,. The same year in 1960, Bobby separated from his spouse Marilyn, resulting in a divorce later in the year. Ive hurt them terribly.. In October 1961, Bobby was referred to the psychiatric court and subsequently admitted to a rehab center in Chino for six months before getting released in April 1962. ", Trying to forge a new path, Driscoll left his parents' home at 16 and made trips to New York City to study acting. I felt he was changing but his father said no, it was just a phase he was going through like most boys. After only five months of dating, the couple eloped to Mexico; the couple had a son and a daughter, but after only three years of marriage, the couple split. Not only did it give Driscoll another chance at a starring role, but Disney planned on filming in the United Kingdom. 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. Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. That's just the way it was. Disney had big plans for Driscoll too. "I became a beatnik and a bum," Driscoll said in the 1961 magazine article. "I had everything," Driscoll said in an interview after his sentencing, as quoted by Entertainment Weekly. And then I immersed myself into his extensive collection of work. Driscolls remains were unclaimed and he was eventually buried in a mass, unmarked grave on Hart Island alongside other unidentified bodies. While his name exists on the gravestone of his father in Oceanside, California's Everlasting Hills Memorial Park, it is a cenotaph, as his ashes are now buried on Hart Island. My father made history in more ways than one in Disney films. He was 19 before we knew. Driscoll portrayed Robert "Bibi" Bonnard in Richard Fleischer's comedy The Happy Time (1952), which was based on a Broadway play of the same name by Samuel A. Taylor. "[41] In 1957, he had only two television parts, as the loyal brother of a criminal immigrant in M Squad, a long-running crime series starring Lee Marvin, and as an officer aboard the submarine S-38 in an episode of the World War II docudrama series The Silent Service. 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). After his dismissal, the now teenaged Driscoll looked to other Hollywood studios for work. "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. What they found was the body of Bobby Driscoll in a cot, with two empty beer bottles nearby and surrounded by religious pamphlets. I was 17 when I first experimented with the stuff. 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. In no time I was using whatever was available mostly heroin, because I had the money to pay for it. "Like many adolescents, he developed a rough complexion," explained the former "Father Knows Best" star. He hated Hollywood kids. The film turned Driscoll and his co-star Luana Patten into child stars, and they were discussed for a special Academy Award as the best child actors of the year, but for the year of its release, no juvenile awards were presented at all. I talked to a priest at the prison that he was in, and I got Bobby's prison records. [56], On March 30, 1968, two boys playing in a deserted East Village tenement at 371 East 10th Street found Driscoll's body lying on a cot, with two empty beer bottles and religious pamphlets scattered on the ground. When they rejected me, I fought back, became belligerent and cocky and was afraid all the time.. The actor used to be a married man and shared three children in total. Sweet Pete hops onto a treadmill to outline his origin story at an easy three-mph walk. Afterward, he was crying all the time. In the years following, Driscoll earned something else as prestigious: the good favor of Walt Disney himself. Nineteen months after his demise, Driscoll's mother sought the support of Disney Studio officials to reach Bobby for a potential reunion with his dying father. During production, the big wigs of RKO pictures were so impressed by Driscolls talent that they borrowed him for two vastly different films. Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter. While on a tour on the studio lot, Driscoll noticed a mock-up ship and curiously asked where the water was. Driscoll found work as an artist in The Factory, Warhols New York City art studio. brochures. By all accounts, he was your average little kid living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the only offspring of his father, Cletus Driscoll (1901-1969), an insulation salesman, and his mother, Isabelle Kratz Driscoll (1904-1981), a former schoolteacher, Bobby moved with his parents to Des Moines, Iowa, where the entire family stayed until 1943. Bobby Driscoll (voice of Peter Pan) fell into drug addiction when his acting career failed. A child actor's childhood is not a normal one. Driscoll's death was not announced until his first Disney film, Song of the South, was re-released in 1971. At the time, Disneys finances were in shambles thanks to WWII and desperately needed the film to do well. On top of that, the head honchos at Disney planned more film projects involving Driscoll. 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. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? "He turned me on to Bach when I was 15," he chuckled. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. Ken Goldins Family: His Wife, Daughter Lauras Age, and Son! In 1944, 20th Century Fox offered Driscoll a role in their WWII drama, The Fighting Sullivans. Driscolls burial records, along with many others, were destroyed in a fire. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life. Celebs In-Depth is a leading media and entertainment source as a fast-growing information hub. The young boy had it all, but unfortunately, his snafu with the British authorities had a bigger impact on his career than Driscoll couldve imagined. Robert Cletus Driscoll (March 3, 1937 c. March 30, 1968) was an American actor who performed on film and television from 1943 to 1960. Some people can't get out of it. Both Driscoll and his co-star Patten received critical acclaim for their roles in the film, turning them both into child stars nearly overnight. Then I started putting all my spare time in my arm. However, this wasnt the end of the humiliation that Driscoll had to face. Thats how he found out he was fired. Disney wanted to film Robin Hood in the United Kingdom, but Driscolls run-in with British immigration made it impossible for the young actor to work in the UK. [11], Driscoll was lent to RKO[12] to star in The Window, based on Cornell Woolrich's short story "The Boy Cried Murder". He was born Robert Cletus Driscoll in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the only child of Cletus (1901-1969), an insulation salesman, and Isabelle ( ne Kratz; 1904-1981), a former schoolteacher. 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. "Obviously he was sick and an addict and broke. The part was a far cry from Driscolls usual rolesthere was no singing, wise-cracking, or cartoon animals involved. The body was unknown and went unclaimed. He became addicted to narcotics, and was sentenced to prison for illicit drug use. And somewherealthough nobody is sure exactly whereon that island that once housed a woman's psychiatric asylum, a men's prison, and patients quarantined during an outbreak of yellow fever in the 1870s, is the final resting place of Peter Pan. Additional screen portrayals included the boy who could blow his whistle while standing on his head in Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, the "child brother" of Richard Arlen in The Big Bonanza (both 1944), and young Percy Maxim in So Goes My Love (1946),[5] with Don Ameche and Myrna Loy. Critics praised Driscolls work, with some of his art even being temporarily displayed in Los Angeles in the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The actor continued to perform successfully on television until 1957 and even managed to secure two final screen roles on The Scarlet Coat (1955) and The Party Crashers (1958). TIL of Bobby Driscoll, famous Disney child actor in the 1940s and 50s (including the voice of Peter Pan), who died penniless and alone at age 31 in an abandoned NYC building. She played Jeff Daniel's daughter in one film, nine years later she's playing his love interest. Christopher jones denison iowa. "We were buddies," said Gray. Driscoll's name has long faded from mainstream recognition, but there have been attempts to keep his memory alive in the decades since his death. And I guess Disney thought he was no longer useful for them.". TV Shows. Action & Adventure. For Driscoll, this was easier said than done. He passed away at the age of 31 on March 30, 1968. He died alone on a cot in NYC with no one to claim his body.. Bobby Driscoll was a child actor in the 40s and 50s who was the first child actor contracted to Disney, with Driscoll acting in movies such as Song of the South, Treasure Island, and, most famously, Disney's Peter Pan as the titular character. "We just don't know where." There were no obvious signs of foul play. Driscoll's last major success, Peter Pan (1953), was produced largely between May 1949 and mid-1951. The New York Times credited the films success wholly to Driscolls performance, stating that The Window is Bobby Driscolls picture, make no mistake about it. At just ten years old, Driscoll proved to the world that he had what it took to be an exceptional actor, and it led to one of the biggest highlights of his career. "I had no residence. His unclaimed body was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in New York City's Potter's Field on Hart Island. On March 30, 1968, Bobby Driscoll died alone in an abandoned East Village tenement. That would be the story of Bobby Driscoll, one of Disneys first major child stars, who voiced and modeled Peter Pan in the 1953 animated film before being dropped from the studio. The Florida governor has taken his authoritarian ambitions to new heights. He is commemorated at Eternal Hills Memorial Park in Oceanside, California, on his father's gravestone. He was responsible for one of the real high points of my life. Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIIIs rejected queenbut few people know her even darker history. Chip certainly gets it, having sacrificed his Hollywood dreams to schlep insurance packages. Release Date. "I was carried on a silver platter and then dumped into the garbage can. In Driscoll's later years, he was arrested multiple times for drug possession, assault, burglary and check-kiting before he was committed for drug rehabilitationin 1961. [22] Driscoll was cast with Disney's "Little British Lady" Kathryn Beaumont, who was in the role of Wendy Darling; he was used as the reference model for the close-ups and provided Peter Pan's voice, and dancer and choreographer Roland Dupree was the model for the character's motion. It took even longer for news of Driscolls passing to reach the public. While on a tour across the studio lot, five-year-old Driscoll noticed a mock-up ship and asked where the water was. Discovered by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CA. Cast with Charles Boyer, Marsha Hunt, Louis Jourdan, and Kurt Kasznar, he played the juvenile offspring of a patriarch in Quebec of the 1920s, the character upon whom the plot centered. I made lots of money, so I recruited other toons to star in more movies. Its given me so much joy throughout my life. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. Sometime in 1961, Bobby moved to Topanga Canyon, where the former actor and his girlfriend Suzanne Stansbury were arrested for stealing money from an animal clinic. Born on March 3, 1937, Bobby Driscoll was a native of Iowa, United States. By Julie Miller May 23, 2022 "This. According to him, his personality took a turn for the worse during his marriage, and his dwindling career soon followed suit. Family, friends, and fans were left to ponder how a boy who seemingly had it all could fall so far. ", The only son of an insulation salesman and former schoolteacher, Driscoll was discovered at the age of 5 while getting a trim. It seemed everything in Bobby Driscoll's life was meant to end after a short period. The two had two daughters and one son. Now I get to decide whos a star, and who gets thrown in the trash., His story recalls any number of child starsbut for those in the know, it comes across as a surprisingly dark reference to one of Disneys lesser-known horror stories, particularly for a PG movie rolling out on the Disney platform. [64], In February 2009, singer-songwriter Benjy Ferree released Come Back to the Five and Dime Bobby Dee Bobby Dee, a concept album based in part on Driscoll's life. Driscolls mother Isabelle wouldnt learn of her sons death until nearly two years later after placing advertisements about his disappearance in New York newspapers, the outlet shared.
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