Bobby Driscoll appeared in some of the most famous live-action films of the time from the Walt Disney Studios. Another arrest in 1961 for robbery, assault, and narcotics possession, and admission into the Narcotic Rehabilitation Center in California further cemented his increasingly poor reputation.
Two years later, the show was canceled. Discovered by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CA. Just a year later, police arrested him for marijuana possession; they dismissed the charges soon after. Despite that, Driscoll continued his downward spiral. In no time I was using whatever was available... mostly heroin, because I had the money to pay for it. In an interview years later, he stated, "I was 17 when I first experimented with the stuff. She was fired from the show for getting pregnant at 19. A medical examiner gave the cause of death as artery hardening which led to a heart attack. Now nicknamed by the American press as Walt Disney's "Sweetheart Team",[8] Driscoll and Patten starred together in So Dear to My Heart (1948) with Burl Ives and Beulah Bondi. [41] On July 24, 1956, Hedda Hopper wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "This could cost this fine lad and good actor his career.
Later, Bobby and Didi relocated to Beverly Glen, and the couple began to smuggle cocaine into New York City. In late 1967 or early 1968, the penniless Driscoll left The Factory and disappeared into Manhattan's underground. Driscoll was the animation model and lent the voice for the titular character in animated musical fantasy adventure-drama Peter Pan (1953), one of his most famous roles to date. However, his drug use increased. It's believed that the teenager's bad acne was the main reason for Disney dropping him. There his grades dropped substantially, he was the target of ridicule for his previous film career, and he began to take drugs. Near his body were two beer bottles and numerous religious pamphlets.
[55][56], In 1965, early in his tenure at the Factory, Driscoll gave his last known film performance, in experimental filmmaker Piero Heliczer's underground movie Dirt. Driscoll was best known as the voice of (and model for) Peter Pan, as well as roles in So Dear to My Heart, Treasure Island, and Song of the South. He was a wonderful and talented young actor who left us far too soon. Source: Pinterest. In some special star-focusing series, Driscoll appeared with Loretta Young, Gloria Swanson, and Jane Wyman. He was an only child, but he stole hearts from his first film, 1944's "The Fighting Sullivans. Bobby Driscoll was officially married to his wife, Marilyn Jean Rush, for three years from 1957 to 1960. He is commemorated at Eternal Hills Memorial Park in Oceanside, California, on his father’s gravestone.
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. pic.twitter.com/OZilAQGFIu, He and co-star Luana Patten, another child actress, were labeled as the "Sweetheart Team" at the time. Driscoll’s death was not announced until his first Disney film, Song of the South, was re-released in 1971. 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". The feature was filmed in the United Kingdom, and during production it was discovered that Driscoll did not have a valid British work permit, so his family and Disney were fined and ordered to leave the country. In the latter film, he starred alongside Mark Damon and Connie Stevens. Did you know that Bobby Driscoll, the voice and model for Peter Pan, was fired from Disney the same year the movie came out? "[40] In 1956, he was arrested for the first time for possession of marijuana, but the charge was dismissed. [30], After he left the Disney studios, Driscoll's parents withdrew him from the Hollywood Professional School, which served child movie actors,[31][32][33][34] and sent him to the public West Los Angeles University High School instead.
Driscoll also lost out on the role of Robin Hood because of the same work permit issue.
See Bobby Driscoll in THE WINDOW ('49) this Sunday at 10am ET on #NoirAlley #Noirvember pic.twitter.com/4wDghusp14. An attempt at work as a salesman was a dud. He was supposedly a homeless person and remained unclaimed and later buried on Hart Island, where he rests in an unmarked pauper’s grave. His unclaimed body was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in New York City's Potter's Field on Hart Island. Best known for her role on "Diff'rent Strokes," Plato started her career in tv commercials, amassing over 100 of them. [citation needed], After his release, he focused his attention on the avant-garde art scene. 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.
)", "Bobby Driscoll Hopes To Rebuild Film Life", "Bobby Driscoll Freed On Bail After Fracas", "Bobby Driscoll Won't Be Around For Reissue Of "Song Of The South" (last column)", "Bobby Driscoll sitting on a couch (on portfolio, page 38, third row – it's the last known photograph of him, ca. In retrospect, this was just the start of hard times for Driscoll. Then, as soon as "Peter Pan" made its theatrical release, Disney prematurely ended Driscoll's contract.
The director was left impressed by the young boy’s intelligence and curiosity and gave him the role as he came out on top over 40 candidates.
Soon after, he also appeared in "One Hour in Wonderland," Disney's first Christmas special. The medical report revealed he had suffered from heart failure caused by severe stiffening of the arteries due to his prolonged substance abuse. Driscoll was 31 when he died. A severe case of acne accompanying the onset of puberty,[27] explaining why it was necessary for Driscoll to use heavy makeup for his performances on dozens of TV shows, was officially provided as the final reason for the termination of his connection with the Disney Studios. In March 1953, the additional two-year option Driscoll had been extended (which would have kept him at Disney into 1956) was canceled, just weeks after Peter Pan was released theatrically. with Alan Ladd (all 1946). 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. Bobby Driscoll: Disney, Delinquency and Death Bobby Driscoll (1937-1968) was one in that long chain of cursed child performers, falling in the chronology midway between the Little Rascals and the kids from Diff’rent Strokes. 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. A medical examiner gave the cause of death as artery hardening which led to a heart attack. 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. However, Howard Hughes, who had bought RKO the previous year, considered the film unworthy of release and Driscoll not much of an actor and delayed its release. 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. Died Unidentified at the Age of 31; Death was Reported 3 Years Later. Driscoll moved to New York but received the same answer from the industry there. He managed to graduate from the Hollywood Professional School in 1955.
Driscoll began using the name "Robert Driscoll"[45] to distance himself from his youthful roles as "Bobby" (since 1951, he had been known to friends and family as "Bob",[46] and in Schlitz Playhouse of Stars – Early Space Conquerors, 1952, was credited as "Bob Driscoll"[47]). [30], For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Driscoll received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in 1960. After going into hiding in Canada, Didi returned to Los Angeles, while Bobby went to New York. They were allowed to remain for six weeks to prepare an appeal, and director Byron Haskin hastily shot all of Driscoll's close-ups,[16] using his British stand-in to film missing location scenes after he and his parents had returned to California. He was involved in a violent incident that led to an arrest and charges for assault and disturbing the peace. Bobby was arrested for the third time the following month over the possession of opioids. #disney #disneyland #peterpan #bobbydriscoll #peter #waltdisney #disneymovie #movie #film #animation #cartoon #disneyblog #disneyblogger #blog #blogger #classic #thedisneyclassics #disneyclassic #history #vintage, A post shared by The Disney Classics ð (@thedisney.classics) on Feb 9, 2020 at 9:06pm PST. On another series, Men of Annapolis, he appeared with John Smith, future second husband of Driscoll's Song of the South co-star, Luana Patten. Wake up! Like his career, this part of his life was just as tragically eventful. [57], In late 1967 or early 1968, the penniless Driscoll left The Factory and disappeared into Manhattan's underground. Learn about how his career went from such a high to a horrific tragic ending. In December 1956, Driscoll and his longtime girlfriend, Marilyn Jean Rush (occasionally misspelled as "Brush"), eloped to Mexico to marry despite their parents' objections. The two would elope and get married in Los Angeles one year later.
They treated me as one apart. Discovered accidentally in a barbershop in Altadena, CA, at the age of five and a half, he managed to captivate the audience with everything he ever did on the screen and on television during his 17-year career (1943-1960). Watch: Jean Hersholt and Bobby Driscoll receiving Special Awards. His interest centered on the avant-garde art scene following his release. 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. When he got out in 1962, the entire industry seemed to have turned against him. They later shifted to Los Angeles when a doctor recommended Bobby’s father to relocate to California since he was diagnosed with work-related handling of asbestos.