Jackie Coogan

John Leslie Coogan was born on October 26, 1914, in Los Angeles, California. Spotted by Charlie Chaplin while performing on a vaudeville stage at age four, Chaplin cast him in 'A Day\'s Pleasure' (1919) and then tailored his first feature-length masterpiece, 'The Kid' (1921), around the boy's natural comedic and heartbreaking emotional expressive abilities. 'The Kid' was a worldwide box-office triumph, turning Coogan into the world's first global child celebrity. He subsequently starred in 'Oliver Twist' (1922) and 'Tom Sawyer' (1930), with his merchandise—from peanut butter to whistle toys—grossing tens of millions of dollars.

However, upon turning twenty-one, Coogan discovered that his mother and stepfather had completely squandered his estimated $4 million earnings ($80+ million adjusted for inflation). In 1938, Coogan filed a high-profile lawsuit to recover his money. The scandal prompted the California State Legislature in 1939 to pass the landmark Child Actor's Bill, universally known as the 'Coogan Act', requiring a child's employer to set aside a mandatory percentage of earnings in a protected trust fund. During World War II, Coogan served heroically as a glider pilot with the 1st Air Commando Group in Burma. In the 1960s, Coogan reinvented himself for a new generation of audiences, portraying the bald, lightbulb-powering Uncle Fester on the classic television sitcom 'The Addams Family' (1964–1966).