Driscoll was loaned to RKO Studios for the 1949 suspense film, The Window. The film became a hit and Driscolls work was applauded. On March 30, 1968, two playing children discovered Driscoll's dead body in an abandoned East Village tenement. Copyright 2023 by Factinate.com. First, the exact spot where the city buried Driscoll remains a mystery. EXCLUSIVE: Billy Gray still has fond memories of his beloved pal Bobby Driscoll. 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). It took even longer for news of Driscolls passing to reach the public. [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. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. In May of 1955, Driscoll graduated and even found work in television. There was simply no way Disney could complete Treasure Island without DriscollOr so it seemed. His grades dropped and he began taking drugs. His drug use increased; in an interview years later, he stated, "I was 17 when I first experimented with the stuff. 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. Although Peter Pan was largely successful, Walt Disney himself didnt like the film. Also Known As: Robert Cletus Driscoll Died At Age: 31 Family: Spouse/Ex-: Marilyn Jean Rush (m. 1956 - div. On March 30, 1968, two boys playing in a deserted East Village apartment stumbled upon a gruesome discovery. Driscoll even had the honor of voicing Goofy Jr. in two Disney cartoon shorts, Fathers are People and Fathers Lion. [42] They had two daughters and one son, but the relationship did not last. [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]. In ill health from his substance abuse, and with his funds depleted, his body was discovered on March 30, 1968, in an abandoned building in the East Village of Manhattan. 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. In a last-ditch attempt to distance himself from his Disney days, Driscoll began using the name Robert Driscoll when looking for acting jobs. He also worked on radio shows, including special broadcast versions of Treasure Island (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). After a final appearance in Piero Heliczer's Underground short Dirt (1965) in 1965 and a short art-period at Andy Warhol's so-called Factory, he disappeared into the underground, thoroughly dispirited, funds depleted. Over the next year, Driscoll ran into trouble with the authorities again and again. . From petty paybacks to insane acts of karma, these bitter people somehow found the most ingenious ways. Bobby Driscoll was born Robert Cletus Driscoll on March 3, 1937. He and his co-star Luana Patten became child-stars and the media dubbed them as Walt Disneys Sweetheart Team.. An acquaintance helped the 5 year-old Driscoll with an audition at MGM for a minor role in 1943s Lost Angel. He overcame 40 aspirants to bag the role. They treated me as one apart. Bobby Driscoll was born Robert Cletus Driscoll on March 3, 1937. He won an Oscar at 12, and. While on tour across the studio lot, five-year-old Driscoll noticed a mock-up ship and asked where the water was. ", Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Billy Gray, Lauren Chapin, and Elinor Donahue from the show "Father Knows Best," circa 1955. Currently, Bobby Driscoll is 85 years, 11 months and 10 days old. Hell Is for Heroes is a 1962 American war film directed by Don Siegel and starring Steve McQueen.It tells the story of a squad of U.S. soldiers from the 95th Infantry Division who, in the fall of 1944, must hold off an entire German company for approximately 48 hours along the Siegfried Line until reinforcements reach them. 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. 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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. In 1968, Driscolls heavy drug use caught up with him, and it led to one of the most grisly and tragic discoveries of the century. That same year, Driscoll got in trouble with the authorities once again when he hit a heckler that insulted him while he washed his girlfriends car. Bobby Driscoll: his birthday, what he did before fame, his family life, fun trivia facts, popularity rankings, and more. He took on the double role of Danny/Josh Reed in When I Grow Upand made a brief guest appearance in Disneys first televised Christmas show, One Hour in Wonderland. At the same time, Driscoll was working on another projectand it defined his entire career. He became addicted to narcotics, and was sentenced to prison for illicit drug use. When a doctor . At the time, Disneys finances were in shambles thanks to WWII and desperately needed the film to do well. As a result, Driscoll was unable to work on the two major pictures that Disney planned for him. His parents had normal, respectable jobs. The role was minor, but it was the start of many movies that capitalized on Driscoll's features, including his pert nose and freckled face. 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. Son of Cletus Joseph Driscoll and Isabelle Louise Driscoll Rebecca had her start in writing in elementary school, when a short story she wrote was published in her school's yearbook; she's been chasing the thrill of having her works published ever since. Robert Cletus Driscoll. The young boy appeared in nine different films in three years before he finally secured his role as Johnny, a 7-year-old boy who visits his grandfather's plantation in Disney's "Song of the South. Driscoll encountered increasing indifference from the other Hollywood studios. He had been getting a trim in a barber's shop in Pasadena when one barber told him he should be in the movies. It wasnt until one year later that Driscolls family learned of his passing, and the results were agonizingly tragic. To make matters worse, Disney distanced itself from Song of the South, as well as Peter Pan to a lesser degree, both films in which Driscoll played a pivotal role. March 1, 2021 - 7:01AM Former Disney child star Bobby Driscoll rose to fame at age 9 as "the first human being signed for Disney Productions." He won a Juvenile Oscar at age 12 and went on to voice the title role in 1953's animated film Peter Pan at age 16, but met a tragic end. My mom never told me how her best friend died. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/bobby-driscoll-43522.php, 20th Century Film & Theater Personalities, 20th Century American Film & Theater Personalities. This is a business registration address for Paul Wink. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Des Moines, where they stayed until early 1943. 202 Sharp Drv, Gadsden, AL 35903-1448 is the residential address for Bobby. In fact, 40 other applicants wanted the role! [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). Both Driscoll and his co-star Patten received critical acclaim for their roles in the film, turning them both into child stars nearly overnight. In fact, Driscoll stumbled into acting purely by chanceand it was all thanks to a fateful encounter. Most notably, he served as the animation model and provided the voice for the title role in Peter Pan (1953). By the age of 17, he began taking drugs regularly. 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 couple had two daughters and a son. During production, the big wigs of RKO pictures were so impressed by Driscolls talent that they borrowed him for two vastly different films. Discovered by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CA. Driscoll and Rush eloped in Mexico, although both sets of parents objected to their union. In December 1956, Driscoll and his longtime girlfriend, Marilyn Jean Rush (occasionally misspelled as "Brush"), eloped to Mexico to marry despite their parents' objections. 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