Jackie Coogan with Joan Crawford in 1925 Photo: Getty
Six-year-old Jackie Coogan, who instantly became a world star for his role in the Charlie Chaplin film 1921 «Baby» was soon declared «the most famous boy in the world» by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Four decades later, when he again became a household name for his role as Uncle Fester, the bald, creepy-looking freak on the television show The Addams Family, he admitted to his addiction to life in the spotlight. “Ask anyone,” he said in 1965, “public adoration is the greatest thing in the world.”
But the revering public knew little about his extraordinary, crazy private life. Some quick examples: Coogan survived a horrific car accident that killed his father and three passengers because he was saved by bags of dead pigeons. He created history by introducing legislation protecting the earnings of child actors after an estimated £70 million (in today's money) of his own earnings was stolen and squandered by his parents and stepfather.
The drama in his life did not stop. He was a World War II glider pilot who survived a deadly attack by Japanese soldiers; he had four unstable marriages, including to Golden Age starlet Betty Grable; his life was marred by alcohol and drug addiction, which got him into trouble with the police. Finally, after hundreds of film and television roles, including acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola's penultimate role in The Fugitive, he died of a heart attack on March 1, 1984, at the age of 69.
John Leslie Coogan was born on October 26, 1914, the son of vaudeville performers John and Lillian. He was only four years old when he was spotted on stage at the Orpheum Theater in their native Los Angeles with his parents by Chaplin, who hired him to play the role of an abandoned, sad-eyed, angelic waif taken in by a tramp. his scoundrel friend.
Jackie Coogan in 1914 Photo: Getty
The Kid is one of the masterpieces of silent cinema, and Chaplin said of his young colleague that “just to be in its presence is to feel inspired.” Coogan captivated moviegoers around the world, and over the next three years he starred in 11 films, including Peck's Bad Boy, Long Live the King and Oliver Twist, in which he gave a stunning performance opposite Lon Chaney as Fagin.< /p>
Before he was 10 years old, Coogan's life had become a surreal celebrity circus. He was traveling in a private carriage and was sought out by writer Arthur Conan Doyle. “The other boys went to see Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth came to see me,” Coogan joked about the baseball legend. Asked in 1972 whether he had grown up to be a normal boy, he replied: “A normal boy? How do I know what a normal boy would do? When I was seven, we bought a big house and built one of the first swimming pools in Southern California. Being who I was, I had the best swimming instructor in Duke Kahanamoku the year after he won the Olympics.»
In 1924, Coogan remained in London as part of a five-week European fundraising tour on behalf of an orphans' charity. After returning from London Zoo, he was attacked by a mob outside The Savoy Hotel (where he was staying in the Royal Suite) and had to be rescued by police from fans. In Italy, he had a private audience with Pope Pius XI and met with Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, who presented him with an autographed photograph with the inscription “To the Little Great.”
Coogan's earnings benefited his parents. By 1924, he became the top box office draw in America, ahead of Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. “I got the flu in New York and it knocked the President of the United States off the front pages,” he recalled. His film earnings were estimated at £40 million (his contract guaranteed a share of the films' profits) and, in effect, became the first celebrity film star franchise.
“We were pioneers in the commercial bond market,” Coogan told The Associated Press in 1964. “At one time my name was on 50 or 60 different stories.” Money from branded dolls, pencil cases, soaps, lunch boxes and a generous contract from retail chains Peck & Peck for the production of the Jackie Coogan clothing line, which brought in about £30 million.
However, in the 1930s, this magical childhood was cut short. During the talkie era, his film career waned (after disappointing performances in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn) and he dropped out of Santa Clara University due to poor grades. In 1933, he was involved in the lynch mob controversy when it was alleged that the 19-year-old Coogan helped hold the ropes in the revenge mob that lynched in San Jose Thomas Thurmond and Jack Holmes, two criminals who kidnapped and killed the 22-year-old Coogan. — Brooke Hart's old college friend.
Jackie Coogan meets Babe Ruth, 1921. Photo: Bettmann
His life began to completely unravel in May 1935, five months before his 21st birthday. After a day of dove hunting in Mexico (during which 350 birds were killed with eight shotguns), a car accident occurred. Coogan's father was driving 75 mph when he rounded a curve near San Diego and plunged into the canyon. The vehicle flipped over seven times before coming to rest at the bottom of the creek. Coogan's father died along with fellow passengers Junior Durkin (a 19-year-old friend who played Huck Finn in Coogan's Tom Sawyer), rancher Charlie Jones and Hollywood screenwriter Robert Homer.
Kogan survived only because he was surrounded by bags of dead pigeons. “The pigeons were like feather pillows. That’s what saved me,” he said. Coogan suffered cuts and bruises and two ribs were damaged. Jones, who was sitting next to Coogan, was thrown out of the car during the first somersault with such force that a stone was torn off from him.
After he turned 21 and was plagued by financial problems, Coogan sued for missing earnings (he only received a $6.25 weekly allowance, since under California law at the time, a minor's earnings belonged solely to the parent). His mother and her lawyer husband Arthur Bernstein spent millions on Rolls-Royces, property, fur coats and jewellery, including a diamond pocket watch for Bernstein that cost £50,000. When the case finally came to trial in April 1938, Los Angeles Chief Judge Emmett Wilson heard evidence that Coogan's mother had called him a «bad boy» and screamed at her son: «It's all mine and Arthur's, and as far as we know , you will never do this.» get a cent.»
Jackie Coogan leaves the Los Angeles courthouse with her lawyer (left) and parents in 1922. Photo: Bettmann
Bernstein had friends in high places, including Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM and the highest paid man in America. He called Coogan and warned him to drop «this stupid suit,» adding that «no spirited American boy would ever sue his mother.» During his trying years, Coogan struggled for money (Chaplin gave him $10,000 to help him survive) and his career stalled. Looking back, Coogan said in 1972: «It was the lowest point of my life because my stepfather was related to a lot of people and the studios blacklisted me.»
He advised would-be child stars to “stay away from their mothers,” although he later reconciled with Lillian. Coogan was given back a small portion of his earnings after the lawsuit, but his groundbreaking lawsuit led directly to the May 1939 passage of the California Child Actors Act (known as the Coogan Act), which guaranteed that 15 percent of child actors' earnings were to be kept in trust fund.
Coogan married starlet Betty Grable on November 20, 1937, and their temperamental relationship had problems from the start. According to Coogan's biographer and friend Diana Scerry Carey, Grable returned home shortly after their honeymoon to discover that Coogan had sold their wedding gifts for «cash». He later sold all their furniture except the refrigerator. When asked about his behavior, Coogan shrugged and replied: «A guy's gotta eat, hasn't he?»Jackie Coogan with his wife Betty Grable in 1935 Photo: Getty
During the same period, Coogan and Grable gave an interview to Pathé News, saying they were robbed at gunpoint and the thief ordered the actress to «give me your ring or I'll blow your brains out.» The incident was so unusual that Coogan was asked if it was actually a publicity stunt. “There is no truth in this,” he replied. “We don’t have to do those things to get publicity. I wish it was a publicity stunt because we'd like to bring the rings back.» The couple starred together several times, including in a film originally called «Campus Dorm» but retitled «Million Dollar Legs» in deference to Grabler's call and allowing Twentieth Century-Fox to insure the actress's legs for the same amount.
Grable quickly became disillusioned with family life and complained to fellow musician Artie Shaw about Coogan's «boorish behavior.» Some of them were more weird and creepy than just boorish. One evening, for example, as a «drunken prank» (according to Carey's biographer), «he urinated on his sleeping wife.» It would seem that this was the last straw. A few weeks later, she called Shaw and said that she was divorcing Coogan and would become the jazz star's mistress. Shaw later said harshly of Grable, who died aged 56 of lung cancer, that «Betty had the most magnificent body I ever saw, although there wasn't much going on up there.»
Coogan married again in 1941 to actress Flower Parry, and this marriage also lasted only two years. When she sued for divorce, the 21-year-old said Coogan drank heavily and had frequent affairs, telling Judge Frank M. Smith: «He just didn't seem to care about me or our child John Anthony and he walked away.» with many girls.» Perry said that when they lived in Monterey, he often drank with friends he made while working as a glider flight instructor while in Kentucky.
Jackie Coogan in 1957 Photo: Getty
As it turned out, Coogan, who had a pilot's license, was a better soldier than a husband. In March 1944, Flying Officer John L. Coogan was at the controls of the lead glider when Allied forces, under the command of the famous Major General Ord Wingate, were landed in the dark of night 150 miles behind Japanese positions in northern Burma. With a plane full of British commandos called «Chindits» who were specialists in close combat and jungle warfare, Coogan landed the glider safely in treacherous conditions. He spent the next four days working through monsoon storms to help build a safer runway.
However, his most traumatic memory of the war was when he piloted another glider that crashed in enemy territory. Coogan's friend John Astin, who played the role of Gomez Addams, said Coogan told him about his horrific experience. “Japanese soldiers came in and stabbed everyone on the plane. And Jackie was the only one they missed,” Astin said. “He lay alone at the bottom of this pile of dead and dying people, and eventually he got out and escaped. But most of his life he was tormented by nightmares.” Coogan was honorably discharged in 1944 and awarded the Air Medal for meritorious service. «I think of all the actors, Jackie was the most genuine and unsung hero of World War II,» said Oscar-nominated actor Jackie Cooper.
Upon his return to Hollywood after the war, Coogan noted bitterly: “I got loud cheers and slaps in the face, but no job.” However, the lack of money did not affect his romantic aspirations. On Christmas Eve 1946, he obtained a marriage license to marry blues singer Anne McCormack (who was talented enough to tour as the opening act for Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis), and the couple married on Boxing Day. Their daughter Joan Dolliver Coogan was born two years later in Los Angeles.
The cast of “The Addams Family” with Jackie Coogan remained in the role of Uncle Fester. Photo: Getty
This third marriage also ended in divorce (in 1951), with the singer admitting to Reuters that their relationship was doomed for several months. She cited his “cruelty” in divorce papers and told the court he criticized her cooking, called her “stupid” and “repeatedly twisted her arm.” Actor Dick Winslow said Coogan was so upset by the marriage that he became a «committed misogynist.»
Around this time, Coogan, frustrated by his lack of work, expanding waistline and bald spot, quit show business to sell kitchen gadgets. “I just ran out of gas,” he later lamented. However, he was again enticed by offers to work on new television and was cast as Agent Stony Crockett in the long-running Western G-Men, set in the 1870s. In the 1950s, he also worked with stars such as Charlton Heston, Spencer Tracy and Red Skelton.
In October 1952, while filming the first episodes of Cowboy Men, Coogan married for the last time to dancer Dorothy «Dodie» Lamphere, a close friend of McCormack's. They remained together for the rest of his life, although, according to Carey, Lamphere once quietly filed for divorce and was living apart from Coogan before they reconciled and renewed their vows.
Coogan's fourth wife survived many of his most problematic drug and alcohol use cases. In 1959, Coogan crashed his sports car into two parked cars on San Vicente Boulevard and was treated in hospital for multiple facial abrasions. A police breath test revealed that his blood alcohol level was well over the legal limit in California, and Coogan was forced to pay a large fine. On another occasion, he was arrested for marijuana possession at his home in Malibu, California (the sex worker from the home was fired without charges), and the actor, free on $2,625 bail, avoided jail time only because the trial was terminated after he contracted a severe form of mumps.
The actor's reputation was saved by the fact that he got the role of Uncle Fester in The Addams Family, despite being rejected after the first audition. «He went home, put on a suit, shaved his whole head, put on the makeup he imagined — because he was a fan of Addams from the cartoons — and came in with a high-pitched voice and makeup and did the costume himself,» his daughter Leslie told Stephen Cox. author of the 1991 book The Addams Chronicles: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Addams Family. “The producers sent everyone else home. It was a little humiliating for him that he had to prove himself, but he clearly wanted the role.»
Coogan made Fester his own, and the character remains one of popular entertainment's great quirky figures, so much so that the hit Netflix show » Wednesday (starring Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams) is spawning a 2024 spin-off series for the streaming giant starring Fred Armisen. like Uncle Fester.
Jackie Coogan in 1965 Photo: Getty
When Coogan took on the role of Gomez's hairless, barrel-chested brother — enjoying the thrill of playing a character who stuffs a light bulb into his mouth and makes it glow — he was about to turn 50 and had tousled blond hair and an angelic smile. The «baby» has long since disappeared. He wore a wig off-screen, and the writers used his anxiety about going bald in the 1965 episode «Uncle Fester's Wig», in which his character buys a wig from a traveling salesman in hopes of impressing a woman named Madeline.
The Addams Family opened on September 18, 1964, and Coogan ended up happily playing Fester. Sometimes he would leave the studio with his makeup on and ride his bicycle home in character, giving Californians the bizarre sight of Uncle Fester pedaling through their streets. “Fester never spoke in the Charles Addams cartoons, so I raised my voice an octave and gave him a creepy look,” Coogan told UPI in 1965. “Fester has a lot of good things, but his only problem is that he is one of the great losers of our time. However, he is my type of person. He's a hot-tempered old goat.»
Coogan was crushed when ABC canceled The Addams Family in 1966 — after 64 episodes — saying: «It was so much fun, I don't know why it was cancelled.» Although he was thrilled to reprise the role in a one-off 1977 special (“Halloween with the New Addams Family”), his career in that decade was a haphazard mix of weak film roles and minor television appearances on popular shows such as Ironside » , Brady Bunch and Marcus Welby, MD. After the thrill of working for Coppola, his swan song was playing a ranger in a low-budget ax murderer horror film called Prey. />
Coogan's health deteriorated greatly when he was about 60 years old. He suffered numerous small strokes and required regular dialysis after kidney failure. Leslie, one of four children he left behind, said her father «had a gigantic appetite for everything» and that his love of «rich food» contributed to his health problems. Perhaps a man who had seen so many violent deaths was not particularly concerned at that stage. There was one more tragic automotive postscript that Coogan didn't live to see: In 1990, Coogan's son Christopher died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in Palm Springs. He was only 22 years old.
Coogan certainly deserves to be remembered as the first major child star in American film history, and was celebrated for the fun he brought to the role of Fester. At Coogan's funeral, Astin paid tribute to a colleague who «had a great zest for life and was as much fun to work with as anyone in the business.» In 1972, when Coogan was reunited with 82-year-old Chaplin, who had returned to America to accept an honorary Oscar, the comedian whispered to Dodie Coogan: “Remember, your husband is a genius.”
Despite this, However, despite all the recognition and fame, it is difficult not to be struck by the poignancy of the candid memories that Coogan's daughter Leslie once missed. “My father came home one day from filming an episode of The Addams Family, crying and sober, and said, 'I used to be the most beautiful child in the world, but now I'm a disgusting monster,'” she recalls. “It amazed him. In fact, it was connected with his lost childhood.»
Свежие комментарии