Bobby Driscoll was a natural-born actor who was discovered by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, California. Throughout his 17-year career, spanning from 1943 to 1960, he convincingly portrayed various roles on the movie screen and television.
Some of his notable movie appearances include "The Fighting Sullivans" (1944),"Song of the South" (1946),"So Dear to My Heart" (1948),and "The Window" (1949),which earned him an Academy Award in 1950 as the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949.
He received his Hollywood Star on Vine Street for his role as Jim Hawkins in Walt Disney's "Treasure Island" (1950) and was chosen for a Milky Way Gold Star Award in 1954 for his work on TV and radio.
However, his career stalled at the age of 16 due to severe acne, and he struggled to find work as an actor. His last big movie hit was the voice of animated Peter Pan (1953),for which he was also the live-action model.
After his contract with the Disney studios was terminated, he attended the public Westwood University High School, where he graduated in 1955. He continued acting on TV until 1957 and managed to secure two final screen roles in "The Scarlet Coat" (1955) and "The Party Crashers" (1958).
His life became a roller coaster ride, marked by several encounters with the law and his eventual sentencing as a drug addict in 1961. He was released in 1962 and attempted to revive his career on stage, but was ignored by the industry due to his criminal record.
After his parole expired in 1964, he traveled to New York, hoping to revive his career, but his reputation preceded him, and no one wanted to hire him. He eventually disappeared into the underground, thoroughly dispirited, and his body was found in an abandoned East Village tenement on March 30, 1968. He was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave on Hart Island, where he remains.
