Growing Up on the Set

Former child actor Paul Petersen once said, “Fame is a dangerous drug and should be kept out of the reach of children.” It is certainly true that many child actors have fallen prey to the dangers of fame and suffered for it later in life, but others have used fame to their advantage and gone on to even more successful careers in adulthood.
This work is a compilation of interviews with 39 men and women who, as children, worked in the motion picture industry in Hollywood. They all handled their childhood celebrity differently. Lee Aaker, Mary Badham, Baby Peggy, Sonny Bupp, Ted Donaldson, Edith Fellows, Gary Gray, Jimmy Hunt, Eilene Janssen, Marcia Mae Jones, Sammy McKim, Roger Mobley, Gigi Perreau, Jeanne Russell, Frankie Thomas, Beverly Washburn, Johnny Whitaker, and Jane Withers are among those interviewed. They talk candidly about their experiences on and off the set, the people they worked with, and what they did after their careers ended. The pros and cons of being a child actor and the effects that it had on them later in life are discussed at great length.

Tom Goldrup is an actor and writer. He lives in Ben Lomond, California.
Jim Goldrup, is an actor and writer. He lives in Ben Lomond, California.

Tom Goldrup and Jim Goldrup
Foreword by Diana Serra Cary (Baby Peggy)
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 389
Bibliographic Info: 78 photos, filmographies, index
Copyright Date: 2002
pISBN: 978-0-7864-1254-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1370-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments     vii
Foreword     1
Introduction     3
The Actors     5
Filmographies     347
Index     363

“an amazing collection…anecdotes are wonderful…a terrific, entertaining, often moving look into the lives of child actors”—Classic Images.