Jackie Coogan - 15650

American actor. Coogan, born into a family of vaudevillians, was at the age of 4 already a stage attraction performing with his father when he caught the eye of Charles Chaplin, who immediately hired him (and his father as well). After giving him a bit part in the short A Day's Pleasure (1919), he made Coogan his co-star in the masterpiece The Kid (1921). This launched Coogan's film career, and he went on to become one of the highest paid film actors of the day. Movie audiences worldwide doted on him, but his career as a child star petered out when he was 13 and too old to be "cute." Coogan's popular film career ended with the classic tales of Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931) In 1935 when his mother and stepfather refused to let him have the $4 million that he had amassed during his child acting days, he filed suit against them. When the settlement finally came, he received a mere $126,000, but the legal fight brought attention to such abuses, and resulted in the "California Child Actor's Bill" also known as the "Coogan Act" which protected the earnings of child actors. During his adulthood, he occasionally appeared in films playing character roles and worked frequently in television, most notably as Uncle Fester opposite Gomez and Morticia in The Addams Family television series (1964-1966). Coogan married Betty Grable in 1937 (the marriage lasted for 3 years), and three other showgirls in succession afterwards. This is a very fine black and white photograph (8" x 10") of Coogan in later life, signed and inscribed ("To John, Jackie Coogan") in blue ink across a clear area of the image. In excellent condition.