# Child Actors that didn't crash and burn **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964 "2013-03-15T00:52:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/101 "2013-03-19T02:44:36Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Patty Duke has bipolar disorder… No wish to be cruel at all, but this made me laugh until the dog came to see what was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/102 "2013-03-19T15:16:11Z")
A kindergarten-aged Odette Yustman made her debut with Arnold Schwarzenegger in, well, _Kindergarten Cop_ – and played an elementary-school-aged kid in _Remembrance_ with Eva La Rue and _Dear God_ with Greg Kinnear before showing up as a teen in Andy Richter’s short-lived _Quintuplets_ series. She kept getting work in her twenties – six episodes of _South Beach_, nineteen episodes of _October Road_, back to the big screen in _Cloverfield_ before getting the leading role in _The Unborn_ and playing Kristen Bell’s nemesis in _You Again_ – until, as a happily-married Odette Annable, she just finished up simultaneously playing the generous prison doctor Jessica Adams on _House_ and the unattainable safecracker Melanie Garcia on _Breaking In_ – while now playing the Assistant DA on _Golden Boy_, with another movie coming out later this year. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/103 "2013-03-19T15:44:20Z")
I guess Jackie Cooper had a reasonable adult life. He was nominated for an Oscar at age 9 and was popular in the 1930s. He didn’t adapt as an adult actor at first as he wasn’t conventionally handsome. But he did other things such as a Captain in the Navy reserves, sports car racing in SCCA, worked at Screen Gems (apparently helping to cast Sally Field as the Flying nun…wonder how she feels about it since that series was a millstone for her for at least a decade). In the 1970s he had a rejuvenated acting career such as a murdering politician on “Columbo” and as Perry White in the Chris Reeve’s “Superman” films (he had a passport ready when Keenan Wynn suffered a heart attack). > **[Jackie Cooper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Cooper)** > > John Cooper Jr. (September 15, 1922 – May 3, 2011) was an American actor and director. Known as Jackie Cooper, he began his career performing in film as a child, and successfully transitioned to adult roles and directing in both film and television. At age nine, he became the only child and youngest person nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for the 1931 film Skippy. He was a featured member of the Our Gang ensemble in 1929–1931, starred in the television series The People's Cho Joh... Not an actor but Wolfgang Mozart emerged as a popular child prodigy (the rage in the 18th century) into a productive adult, marred only by dying at age 35. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/104 "2013-03-19T16:06:55Z")
[QUOTE=Jim’s Son] I guess Jackie Cooper had a reasonable adult life. He was nominated for an Oscar at age 9 and was popular in the 1930s. He didn’t adapt as an adult actor at first as he wasn’t conventionally handsome. But he did other things such as a Captain in the Navy reserves, sports car racing in SCCA, worked at Screen Gems (apparently helping to cast Sally Field as the Flying nun..wonder how she feels about it since that series was a millstone for her for at least a decade). In the 1970s he had a rejuvenated acting career such as a murdering politician on “Columbo” and as Perry White in the Chris Reeve’s “Superman” films (he had a passport ready when Keenan Wynn suffered a heart attack). [/QUOTE] He was already picking up multiple Emmy nominations in the '60s, for his three years in the leading role of _Hennesey_ – after three years in the leading role of Socrates Miller, in _The People’s Choice_ during the '50s. Switching gears entirely, there’s also Joey Lawrence: in the '80s, he was the wisecracking kid on _Gimme A Break_ from age 5 to age 11; in the '90s, he was the not-too-brainy brother on _Blossom_ from age 14 to 19; he kept getting work in the '00s – a couple of horror films, a few episodes of CSI, half-a-dozen made-for-TV movies – on through to co-starring in _Melissa & Joey_ at present, just now picked up for a third season; he’s not having a superstar career, but I can’t say he crashed and burned. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/105 "2013-03-19T20:02:14Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > How about Johnny Galecki (who played David Healey), better known as Dr Leonard Hofstadter on _The Big Bang Theory_? He’s been acting since the late 1980s and he seems to be doing OK. Admittedly he wasn’t really a child when _Roseanne_ was on air, but by my reckoning he would have been 17 during his first series with the show in 1992. Sara Gilbert was mentioned in the OP and Galecki in this one, but what about their Big Bang co-stars Kaley Cucco and especially Mayim Balik? The later, after playing a young Bette Midler in Beaches and starring in her own TV show Blossom earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience before joining the cast as the amazing Amy Farrah Fowler. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/106 "2013-03-19T20:58:17Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Hold up the train. Patty Duke has bipolar disorder… > [@NitroPress](#): > > No wish to be cruel at all, but this made me laugh until the dog came to see what was wrong. It took me the better part of a day to figure out the joke. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/107 "2013-03-21T15:43:42Z")
Richard Thomas made his on-screen debut at seven, in a Christmas movie with William Shatner, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Tandy, and Margaret Hamilton, which (a) I now must see, and which (b) he promptly followed up, at age eight, with a made-for-TV adaptation of _A Doll’s House_ and a title role in _Oliver Twist_. He kept getting work through his teens – an episode of _Bonanza_ here, an episode of _Marcus Welby_ there, a bunch of plays on Broadway – before starting the role of his career as John-Boy Walton at twenty and working steadily through to the present, with no apparent trainwrecks. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/108 "2013-03-21T16:01:23Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > It took me the better part of a day to figure out the joke. I didn’t get it. And then the music started in my head.. > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Richard Thomas made his on-screen debut at seven, in a Christmas movie with William Shatner, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Tandy, and Margaret Hamilton, which (a) I now must see, and which (b) he promptly followed up, at age eight, with a made-for-TV adaptation of _A Doll’s House_ and a title role in _Oliver Twist_. > > He kept getting work through his teens – an episode of _Bonanza_ here, an episode of _Marcus Welby_ there, a bunch of plays on Broadway – before starting the role of his career as John-Boy Walton at twenty and working steadily through to the present, with no apparent trainwrecks. He is currently in the new show \*The Americans \*on FX. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/109 "2013-03-21T16:49:07Z")
No love for Jennifer Connelly? Started at age 14, hit it big with Labyrinth in 1986 and has 39 titles to her credit, with 2 filming and 1 in post-production as we speak. Or Anne Hathaway, who started off as a princess at 19 and landed an Oscar at the last awards. Or for that matter, Elisabeth Shue, who also started at age 19, became best known as the Karate Kid’s girlfriend. 52 titles for her (and she was smokin’ hawt in Adventures In Babysitting). ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/110 "2013-03-21T16:59:13Z")
MIla Kunis is doing pretty well for herself. She first started on _That 70s Show_ when she was 14. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/111 "2013-03-21T17:20:11Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Mark Lester, the anti-thesis of co-star Jack Wild. Who, absurdly enough, was a very good friend of Michael Jackson for a time and has speculated he may be the [sperm donor of Paris](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1205288/Is-Mark-Lester-father-Michael-Jacksons-daughter-Paris.html). Danielle Spencer, who played Dee on _What’s Happening?_, left the business and became a veterinarian. Her fellow '70s super brat, Alison Arngrim, hasn’t had a great career as an actress as an adult but she’s avoided the Diff’rent Strokes curse and in spite of being an incest survivor (which she’s gone forward with) she’s a well adjusted adult and a very gifted memoirist. The kids from _Good Times_ (Thelma and Michael- Jimmy Walker was already grown when it started) have at least kept their names out of the papers. I was wondering recently whatever happened to Adam Rich from _Eight is Enough_. He was in the tabloids a good bit in the '80s and '90s for usual faded child star stuff, but hasn’t been for over a decade. Hopefull all is well. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/112 "2013-03-21T17:24:39Z")
For some Schadenfreude morbid diversion: The David Spade 2003 movie Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star was, as evidenced by the fact it had David Spade, totally missable, except for the video in the credits at the end, a tongue in cheek USA For Africa style former child star choir. [Child Stars on Your Television](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y7WWJGsKVA) This was a decade ago, and it’s sad how many of the ones in that video have died since then (Corey Haim, Gary Coleman, others) or otherwise trainwrecked (Leif Garrett, Erin Moran, others). At least the Brady brothers seem to be doing well. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/113 "2013-03-21T17:31:21Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > MIla Kunis is doing pretty well for herself. She first started on _That 70s Show_ when she was 14. I’m afraid I beat you by ten posts. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/114 "2013-03-22T10:28:26Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > No love for Jennifer Connelly? Well I keep trying, but there’s that pesky restraining order… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/115 "2013-03-22T13:51:42Z")
You maybe remember the little lovestruck drummer kid from LOVE ACTUALLY who gets fatherly advice from Liam Neeson before gymnasting across an airport? He was the baby-sat boy in NANNY MCPHEE, with Emma Thompson? The ten-year-old Hitler in that RISE OF EVIL movie, with Peter O’Toole? The eleven-year-old chess master in ENTRUSTED, with Klaus Maria Brandauer? The young Tristan in TRISTAN + ISOLDE, before James Franco steps in to play the all-grown-up version? The teenaged Paul McCartney in NOWHERE BOY, even? Now in his twenties, [he’s](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1032473/) apparently just joined the GAME OF THRONES cast, having recently finished shooting a movie with Billy Bob Thornton and Andre Braugher. It’s too soon to say for sure – but by this point, Lindsay Lohan had already crashed her car three times, been in rehab three times, earned a DUI conviction while driving with a suspended license, and gotten busted for cocaine possession; let’s at least give the guy points for smooth sailing so far. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/116 "2013-03-22T16:04:35Z")
She was a fixture of the tabloids her entire career, but I don’t think it can be said \*\*Elizabeth Taylor \*\*(first film, age 10) ever crashed and burned. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/117 "2013-03-22T17:11:17Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > She was a fixture of the tabloids her entire career, but I don’t think it can be said \*\*Elizabeth Taylor \*\*(first film, age 10) ever crashed and burned. No, but IIRC one of her husbands did, so she was crash-and-burn-by-proxy. OTOH, when you marry that many men, odds are pretty good one of them is going to be in a plane crash. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/118 "2013-03-22T17:57:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I was wondering recently whatever happened to Adam Rich from _Eight is Enough_. He was in the tabloids a good bit in the '80s and '90s for usual faded child star stuff, but hasn’t been for over a decade. Hopefull all is well. [This guy](http://images.starpulse.com/pictures/2007/01/29/previews/Adam%20Rich-SGG-032801.jpg)? I can’t be sure, but I think he may have offered me an 8-ball at a Hollywood Undead show recently. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/119 "2013-03-22T18:01:34Z")
Suburgatory’s [Jeremy Sisto](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005438/). I knew I remembered him from something… Grand Canyon. Haven’t heard of too many C&Bs. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964/120 "2013-03-22T19:27:02Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Suburgatory’s [Jeremy Sisto](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005438/). I knew I remembered him from something… Grand Canyon. Haven’t heard of too many C&Bs. W/ the exception of Brittany Murphy’s death, the cast of \*Clueless \*has been relatively unscathed. It may be icky but I wouldn’t call feeding your kid like they’re a baby bird is crash or burn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-actors-that-didnt-crash-and-burn/652964.md?page=7)