The greatness of The Cosby Show in its early years is due in no small part to Keshia Knight-Pulliam. And it’s crappiness in later years to Raven-Symone.
Agreed! She was very good.
Definitely - glad you mentioned her. And playing Arya on Game of Thrones is her first role!
Yes, it was Sarah Polley, who grew up to be a very cool actress, director and political activist.
I disagree with many of the choices listed in this thread (although I did think about including Fred Savage in my post). I guess annoying child acting is in the eyes and ears of the beholder.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
My all-time favorite performance by a child is Patty McCormack in The Bad Seed. I don’t consider her annoying, since that was part of the character she portrayed. I haven’t seen the movie in a long time, but I vividly remember how evil she was in that role.
I think every kid in season 4 of The Wire was sensational and not at all annoying.
I first ran across Freddie Highmore in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and thought he was quite charming in what is a pretty thankless, goodie-goodie role. Which makes it all the more creepy to see him playing young Master Bates.
46 replies and nobody has mentioned Jodie Foster?
Pssst! Post #10.
I think we’re kind of all over the place in terms of what qualifies as a child actor. Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver and Wil Wheaton in Stand By Me, which I think of as their respective big breaks, were both 13. They’re practically guaranteed to be less annoying than an eight year old Shirley Temple singing about animal crackers in her soup.
oops
I’ll be the first to say that Drew Barrymore as Gert in E.T., and later in Irreconcilable Differences was not annoying at all.
She even managed to fail to annoy in Firestarter.
Joey King is someone who is not annoying, at least to me. Her top-flight performances as Ramona Quimby in Ramona and Beezus and as Emily Cale in White House Down have proven that in my opinion.