Trivia

Was tested for the top boy role in the classic movie Shane (1953) and promised the part, but lost it a few days later to the late Brandon De Wilde.

Profiled in the 2016 book "X Child Stars: Where Are They Now?" by Kathy Garver and Fred Ascher.

After leaving Hollywood he worked as a carpenter for two decades and taught skiing to underprivileged children and people with disabilities at Mammoth Mountain in California.

In 1952, he appeared in two movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and High Noon (1952). The former won.

Interviewed in "Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Classic Film and Television" by Tom Goldrup and Jim Goldrup (McFarland, 2002).

He was the son of Dorothe Dean (Baker) and Deforrest Leroy Aaker. His mother owned a dancing school. His paternal grandfather was a Norwegian immigrant, while his mother was born in Michigan, to English immigrants.

He and his brother had a song-and-dance act when he was a young child.

He said after giving up acting he spent the rest of the 1960s travelling the world as a "flower child".

Brother of Dee Aaker.

When Lee Aker passed away, Paul Peterson in his advocacy for child actors, contacted the veterans Administration to enable a burial for lee in a veterans cemetery.