JACKIE COOGAN Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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JACKIE COOGAN

Name: John Leslie 'Jackie' Coogan                                                     
Born: 26 October 1914 Los Angeles, California                                         
Died: 1 March 1984 Santa Monica, California                                           
                                                                                       
John Leslie (Jackie) Coogan (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American       
actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent film.                     
                                                                                       
Coogan was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, to John Henry Coogan, Jr., and Lilian       
Rita Dolliver Coogan. 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 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. His scene in The Kid       
where he is taken away from the tramp character played by Chaplin and thrown           
into the back of a truck by the social service agents is one of the most famous       
scenes in cinema[citation needed]. He was also the first star 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 just               
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.