Jack Wild is no more. Mouth cancer is a bad way to go, but at least it wasn’t the drop.
He’s most remembered for the Artful Dodger of course, but I’ll always remember him at least as much for H.R. Pufnstuff.
Ironically his last words were “Davy Jones still lives”. At least according to my inside source on my Ouija Board.
Only tangentially relevant trivia: Ron Moody, who played Fagin in the movie and on stage, remained a lifelong bachelor taking care of his mother and sisters until he was in his early 60s. That’s when he married a 21 year old and had 6 children (the last born in his mid-70s). He’s in his 80s now and occasionally acts but mostly works as an instructor at the Pilates studio he owns with his wife.
Aye. I don’t know how much if any of it was the mouth cancer, but he most definitely did not age well at all. That was evident years ago in Robin Hood: Prince of Hoosiers.
Just for general knowledge sake, the reason his face probably looks like that are the surgeries that are done for mouth cancer. The doctors I work for do lots of them, and they’re fairly involved, depending on the exact placement of the cancer & whether or not the throat is involved at all.
I can give links to eMedicine articles about those types of surgeries, if you’re morbidly curious.
Wow, that was just a wake up moment staring at Wild’s picture on that link…As a child, I had a huge crush on Jack Wild; those dreamy big eyes and cheeky Brit accent.
I’m feeling mighty old now.
Thanks Jack, for being a teen idol, and getting all my revvy bits first akindled. Peace to you.
