At six, Sean Marquette was on the big screen; from seven to nine he fielded soap-opera work, at eleven he’d pop in for an episode of The Hughleys and an episode of Becker and an episode of Judging Amy; he’s now twenty-five, having picked up acting work steadily if unspectacularly every year since.
I mention him because he was back in theaters as the little-kid version of Mark Ruffalo’s character in 13 Going On 30. Remember that one? Turns out a twelve-year-old was actually the best choice for the title character; at fifteen she was the star of her own TV show – and after yet more work on television and in movies, Christa Allen is still playing Charlotte Grayson on Revenge; she’ll be twenty-two next month, and will presumably follow up this third season with plenty more on-screen work.
Never mind her, though; the point is that she was the pint-sized doppleganger of Jennifer Garner, which brings to mind that Ben Affleck’s been in theaters since age eight. Yes, before he was that preteen on Voyage Of The Mimi. Yes, before winning those Oscars and getting cast as Batman.
And, yes, he’s the brother of Casey Affleck, who’s been acting on-screen since twelve – he was playing young Bobby Kennedy at fourteen – and has racked up an Oscar nomination of his own in between likewise doing the writer/director/producer thing.
Casey was also in the American Pie movies with Thomas Ian Nicholas (the kid in A Kid In King Arthur’s Court, and the twelve-year-old star of Rookie Of The Year, and who at eight was playing Flashback-Tony in Who’s The Boss) and Jason Biggs (TV and movie work at twelve, television castmember and Broadway performer at thirteen), both of whom are still getting plenty of work in their thirties. I mean, have you seen Orange Is The New Black?
(You should; Natasha Lyonne, who’s been getting TV and movie work since seven, is terrific in it.)
I just did a search on Daveigh Chase here. I had never heard of her until her recent death at age 35, and her official cause of death has been released: Meningitis, complicated by substance abuse issues, and AIDS.
She must have been living under some very desperate circumstances, because nobody in a developed nation should die from AIDS nowadays. RIP.
Yeah, “count no one happy until the end is known” remains the stuff of tragedy; people do what they can, and the world too often proves to be too much to bear. Horrifying, really.
Has Ron Howard been mentioned, and Jodie Foster too? I think they’ve had pretty successful, scandal-free adult careers.
I read recently that the reason Deanna Durbin completely disappeared from show-business and the public life was because she saw where Judy Garland was headed, and didn’t want anything to do with that for herself. At one point, it wasn’t even known if she was alive, but it turned out she was living with her husband in France, using his surname.
I watch his channel too. He has a lot of good stories and seems to be a really nice guy. He married one of the associate producers on JAG and they’ve been together for going on 30 years.
Elle Fanning seems to have done well for herself. I remember her from the J.J. Abrams movie Super 8 but looking at Wiki, she was in a bunch of stuff before that. She’s still going strong today and I have never heard a bad word about her.
Child actor Michael Ray probably has the record for not-screwing up after acting: a three-time Olympian (luge), and now the controlling stockholder of the Heineken brewing empire. Now worth over $4B. IMDB Bio.
Reminds me (because of their shared co-starring roles in The Great) - Nicholas Hoult of About a Boy has been acting since age 5 and seems outwardly at least reasonably stable and sane.
