Bobby Driscoll

American child actor Bobby Driscoll was five years old when, thanks to the tireless efforts of his mother, he made his first film appearance in MGM's Lost Angel (1943). Three years later, Driscoll was a full-fledged star under contract to Walt Disney studios, where the producer saw to it that the bright-eyed, ingratiating lad was given plum roles in Song of the South (1946) and So Dear to My Heart (1948). Driscoll matured from mere "personality" to "actor" in 1949's The Window, a low-budget RKO melodrama which became the sleeper of the year and which earned Driscoll a special Oscar. The following year, the boy played his best role for Disney: Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island (1950). One of the most vivid memories of young moviegoers of that era was the sight of a terrified Bobby Driscoll shooting a murderous pirate right between the eyes; in fact, it was so vivid that the vignette was cut when Treasure Island was re-issued in the '80s so that the film, which had been passed and approved by the 1950 censors, could qualify for a "G" rating. Driscoll's last work for Disney was as the voice of Peter Pan in the 1953 animated film version of the same name. Driscoll's last film was The Party Crashers (1958), a turgid juvenile delinquent melodrama starring Frances Farmer. After this film he dropped out of sight altogether. On March 30, 1968, in an abandoned New York City tenement not unlike the setting of The Window, Bobby Driscoll was found dead of an apparent drug overdose; the identity of the body would not be confirmed for nearly two years. ~ Hal Erickson Full Biography »