On March 30, 1968, Bobby Driscoll died alone in an abandoned East Village tenement. Once You've Grown Up You Can Never Come Back "He never showed any fear of people," she said. Market data provided by Factset. The award was presented as a special miniature Oscar statuette for "the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949" for his roles in So Dear to My Heart and The Window, both released that year. By all accounts, he was your average little kid living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Instead, Driscoll found a place beside an extremely unlikely and eccentric individual: the artist Andy Warhol. Both Driscolls family and Disney received hefty fines, and they ordered Driscoll out of the country. The cause of death for the penniless 31-year-old was hardening of the arteries, a common side effect of longtime heroin use, Entertainment Weekly reported. On March 30, 1969, two playing kids discovered Bobby's dead body in a deserted East Village building. News of Driscolls end finally went public, four years after tragedy took the young mans life. Most still thought of Driscoll as Disneys kid actor, which made it nearly impossible for Driscoll to find work as a serious character actor. After his release, he focused his attention on the avant-garde art scene. The stigma that his prison sentence left on him made it impossible for Driscoll to find acting jobs, leaving the young man bitterBut not completely hopeless. (Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox / Wikimedia Commons) Bobby Driscoll was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on March 3, 1937. Needless to say, Driscoll could not afford to fail. "Obviously he was sick and an addict and broke. While on a tour on the studio lot, Driscoll noticed a mock-up ship and curiously asked where the water was. He was a wonderful and talented young actor who left us far too soon. In a radio interview in 1946, Driscoll revealed, "A barber in Pasadena told me I should be in the movies, so one Sunday he . Allender has interviewed Connie Stevens, Driscoll's costar in the 1958 film The Party Crashers, and secured the only known interview with Driscoll's eldest child, Don, a retired pediatrician, who has a replica of his dad's Oscar that was lost. The authorities in the United Kingdom allowed Driscoll six weeks to prepare an appeal. Thanks to the money he saved up while working for Disney, Driscoll had the cash to experiment with a wide variety of drugs, and his experiments led him down a dark path with no return. Bobby was arrested for the third time the following month over the possession of opioids. What Happened To Bobby Driscoll: 'Peter Pan' Star Died - Decider Bobby Driscoll 1937-1968 | Isn't Life Terrible? Although his name appears on his father's gravestone at Eternal Hills Memorial Park in Oceanside, California, his remains are still on Hart Island. Both were originally aired on November 5, 1960. [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. Driscoll's mother, Isabellewho had not heard from her son in yearsfound out about Bobby's death nearly a year and a half later after placing advertisements about his disappearance in New York newspapers. They managed to identify Driscoll through his fingerprints, which led them to Hart Island. There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. A year later, he welcomed his second child, a daughter in 1958. He just never got his life together. After his deal with the Disney company was terminated abruptly soon after Peter Pan's release in late March 1953, his mother also withdrew him from the talent-supporting Hollywood Professional School. Driscoll's last major success, Peter Pan (1953), was produced largely between May 1949 and mid-1951. "He got into heroin. Driscoll made nine films in a three-year span before his breakout role as Johnny, a 7-year-old boy who visits his grandfather's plantation in Song of the South. Disney put a lot of faith into Driscoll for the film, and it definitely paid off. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark historyor the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. The corpse failed to be identified, even with pictures shown around the neighborhood. [6] Driscoll then played the lead character in Song of the South (1946), which introduced live action into the producer's films in conjunction with extensive animated footage. No one seems to know how the then 31-year-old Driscoll spent his final days in New York City and why he ended up in an abandoned apartment where those kids found his body. With little choice, Driscoll tried to fit in with the other kids at the West Los Angeles University High School, and the results were utterly heartbreaking. TIL of Bobby Driscoll, famous Disney child actor in the 1940s and 50s (including the voice of Peter Pan), who died penniless and alone at age 31 in an abandoned NYC building. While his name exists on the gravestone of his father in Oceanside, California's Everlasting Hills Memorial Park, it is a cenotaph, as his ashes are now buried on Hart Island. Gray said Driscoll eventually resorted to heroin. He was treated so rudely by Hollywood. According to Driscoll, The other kids didnt accept meWhen they rejected me, I fought back, became belligerent and cockyand was afraid all the time. Alone and friendless, Driscoll turned to drugs at the age of 17. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. Then he didnt care about his appearance or cleanliness, he didnt bathe, his teeth got loose. It would take even longer for word to reach the public at large, as news of the Disney star's passing only surfaced four years after the fact, during the rerelease of Song of the South in 1972. Chip certainly gets it, having sacrificed his Hollywood dreams to schlep insurance packages. "We were buddies," said Gray. 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Peter Pan Bobby Driscoll 2012 New DVD Top-quality Free UK shipping at the best online prices at eBay! Shes also one of our great actorsand is at last getting her showcase. Chosen by a committee of Disney employees whose names are not disclosed, the program was launched in 1987 to "honor people who have made significant contributions to the Disney legacy," says Disney spokesman Jeff Epstein. Afterward, he was crying all the time. Vhs. When they rejected me, I fought back, became belligerent and cocky and was afraid all the time.. They separated, then divorced in 1960. The 50 greatest TV and movie detectives of all time. "I had everything," Driscoll said in an interview after his sentencing, as quoted by Entertainment Weekly. He made multiple trips to New York City to study acting, and even reportedly enrolled in UCLA and Stanford. Although the charges were dismissed, this event marked the beginning of Driscolls many future encounters with the law. Driscoll's brief, two-minute debut[4] helped him win the role of young Al Sullivan, the youngest of the five Sullivan brothers, in the 20th Century Fox's World War II drama The Fighting Sullivans (1944) with Thomas Mitchell and Anne Baxter. That's the real story of Hollywood. "He didn't really recover from being abandoned by Hollywood," reflects actor Billy Gray, who played Bud Anderson on the classic sitcom Father Knows Best and later befriended Driscoll. (LMPC via Getty Images), "He had a drug problem," said Gray. I still thank [Bobby] for that.