- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJohn Leslie Coogan
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Jackie Coogan was born into a family of vaudevillians; his father was a dancer and his mother had been a child star. On the stage by age 4, Jackie was touring at age 5 with his family in Los Angeles, California.
While performing on the stage, he was spotted by Charles Chaplin, who then and there planned a film in which he and Jackie would star. To test Jackie, Chaplin first gave him a small part in A Day's Pleasure (1919), which proved that he had a screen presence. The movie that Chaplin planned that day was The Kid (1921), where the Tramp would raise Jackie and then lose him. The movie was very successful and Jackie would play a child in a number of movies and tour with his father on the stage.
By 1923, when he made Daddy (1923), he was one of the highest- paid stars in Hollywood. He would leave First National for MGM where they put him into Long Live the King (1923). By 1927, at age 13, Coogan had grown up on the screen and his career was going through a downturn. His popular film career would end with the classic tales of Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931).
In 1935, his father died and his mother married Arthur Bernstein, who was his business manager. When he wanted the money that he made as a child star in the 1920s, his mother and stepfather refused his request and Jackie filed suit for the approximately $4 million that he had made. Under California law at the time, he had no rights to the money he made as a child, and he was awarded only $126,000 in 1939. Because of the public uproar, the California Legislature passed the Child Actors Bill, also known as the Coogan Act, which would set up a trust fund for any child actor and protect his earnings.
In 1937, Jackie married Betty Grable; the marriage lasted 3 years. During World War II, he served in the Army; he returned to Hollywood after the war. Unable to restart his career, he worked in B-movies, mostly in bit parts and usually playing the heavy. In the 1950s he started to appear on television, and he acted in as many shows as he could. By the 1960s he would be in two completely different television comedy series.The first one was McKeever and the Colonel (1962), where he played Sgt. Barnes in a military school from 1962 to 1963. The second series was the classic The Addams Family (1964), where he played Uncle Fester from 1964 to 1966. After that, he continued to make appearances on television shows and a handful of movies. He died of a heart attack in 1984.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana
- SpousesDorothea Odetta Hanson(April 1952 - March 1, 1984) (his death, 2 children)Ann McCormack(December 26, 1946 - September 19, 1951) (divorced, 1 child)Flower Parry(August 10, 1941 - June 29, 1943) (divorced, 1 child)Betty Grable(November 20, 1937 - November 19, 1940) (divorced)
- Children
- Parents
- RelativesRobert Coogan(Sibling)Keith Coogan(Grandchild)
- Always considered his proudest moment his 1972 reunion with Charles Chaplin. After two decades of exile from the United States, Chaplin returned in March of that year to receive the Handel Medallion in New York City and a special lifetime achievement Oscar in Hollywood. Coogan was one of several people on hand to greet Chaplin when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. After greeting the other members of the party with perfunctory handshakes, Chaplin, immediately recognized Coogan (whom he hadn't seen in decades), warmly embraced him, saying, "You know, I think I would rather see you than anybody else." Chaplin later told Coogan's wife, "You must never forget that your husband is a genius.".
- His contract with Metro earned him $1 million per year. After money problems with his parents, he helped to organize and get passed in law the Coogan Bill, which protected child actors from such abuse in the future.
- In 1935, at age 21, he had the traumatic experience of losing his father, Jack Coogan Sr., and his best friend, actor Junior Durkin, when both were killed in an auto accident in the California mountains. Durkin died almost instantly at the scene, and Coogan Sr., who had been driving, a few hours later at a local hospital. Jackie, though badly injured, was the sole survivor of the accident. He would later call it the single saddest day of his life.
- When he was cast as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family (1964), Coogan was 49 years old and nearly broke. After the series ended in 1966, he never lacked work again, with numerous television and film appearances, although most of these were only small parts.
- Coogan enlisted in the Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested a transfer to the US Army Air Force as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from glider school, he was made a flight officer and volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In December 1943 the unit was sent to India, where he flew British troops and landed them at night 100 miles behind enemy lines in Burma on March 5, 1944,.
- Hollywood is a lovely place to get knifed in. Today's stars are deadheads compared to the Doug Fairbanks, Errol Flynns, and Clark Gables of my day. Whatever happened to the strong leading man with no hang-ups? And today's child stars? I don't see the ability of any of these kids to carry a picture by themselves... I think their ability lasts as long as a commercial; on, off, hey, wasn't he cute?
- I drank milk from my own ranch. I had a 65' by 80' room filled with toy trains and my own golf course and football field in my backyard. Other boys went to see Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth came to see me.
- [Asked about what gratified him most after a long life] The thing I am proudest of is that I've never been beaten at Scrabble.
- There were 300,000 people waiting on the clock at Southhampton to meet me. And thousands more outside my hotel in London. Every hour I would go out on the balcony and wave.
- It was the lowest point in my life because my stepfather was related to many people and was blackballed by the studios. I found out then the only thing anybody respects in this world is a dollar. Without money, you're nothing.
- Peck's Bad Boy (1921) - $2,000 a week
- The Kid (1921) - $75 per week
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content