William McClellan Chapin (December 28, 1943 – December 2, 2016) was an American
child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage, television, or in film, movies. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associa ...
, known for a considerable number of screen and TV performances from 1943 to 1959 and best remembered for both his roles as the "diaper manager" Christie Cooper in the 1953 family feature ''
The Kid from Left Field'' and little John Harper in
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton (; 1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British and American actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play wi ...
's 1955
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
movie ''
The Night of the Hunter''.
Chapin was the brother of former child actors
Lauren Chapin, known as Kathy "Kitten" Anderson from the TV series ''
Father Knows Best
''Father Knows Best'' is an American sitcom starring Robert Young (actor), Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray (actor), Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six ...
'' and of
Michael Chapin, another child performer of the 1940s and 1950s.
Life and career
Born William McClellan Chapin on December 28, 1943, in Los Angeles, he was the second of three children of Roy Chapin, a bank manager, and Marquerite Alice Barringer, who later became a kind of personal coach for all of her children's acting careers.
His sister Lauren later told about alcohol problems and sexual abuse in the troubled family.
Early roles and Broadway
When only a few weeks old, Chapin made his screen debut in the uncredited role of "Baby Girl" in 1944's ''
Casanova Brown'', starring
Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, silent screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, ...
. Five months later he had another uncredited baby role in ''
Marriage Is a Private Affair'', starring
Lana Turner
Julia Jean "Lana" Turner ( ; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. ...
.
He had another bit role in ''
The Cockeyed Miracle'' in 1946. He started acting professionally in 1951 in a supporting role in the
Broadway stage musical ''
Three Wishes for Jamie'', which, while passably successful, toured the West Coast in the summer of the same year. After essential changes regarding dramatization of the play and replacements in the original West Coast cast, when the play moved to New York City in early 1952, it finally became a considerable success and earned him the
N.Y. Drama Critics Award as the most promising young actor of the year.
From ''The Kid from Left Field'' to ''A Man Called Peter''
This stage success might have earned him his role as the grandson in the 1952 TV adaption of
Paul Osborn's 1938
Broadway play, ''
On Borrowed Time'' at the Celanese Theatre, but his first real screen role he landed just one year later as the "Diaper Manager" Christie Cooper, the lead role of the 1953 family release ''
The Kid from Left Field'', starring
Dan Dailey,
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano; September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, tw ...
and
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. (January 15, 1913 – March 10, 1998) was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. He was the father of four children, includi ...
.
He then did three successive episodes of
Jack Webb
John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, Television director, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet (franchise), ''Dragnet'' franchise ...
's ''
Dragnet'' and two other television shows before he portrayed Brian "Gadge" Robertson, the bright grandson of a fictive astroscientist in the
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
B-flick ''
Tobor the Great'', 1954.
Two smaller screen appearances then fell into line, one in a
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
, entitled ''
Naked Alibi
''Naked Alibi'' is a 1954 American film noir crime film directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame and Gene Barry. It was released on October 1, 1954 by Universal Pictures, Universal-International. Portions of the film ...
'', 1954, with
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor, and Marine. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in Westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in film ...
and
Gloria Grahame and another bit role in the famous screen musical ''
There's No Business Like Show Business'', again starring
Dan Dailey with
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred, in succession, with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talki ...
and
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...
, before the boy gained his next memorable screen attentions as the young son of historic clergyman
Peter Marshall in ''
A Man Called Peter'' and
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include '' One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darli ...
's screen son in his second film noir: ''
Violent Saturday'', both of which were released in 1955.
In between he continued to appear in standard television series such as ''
Waterfront'', ''
The Millionaire'', ''
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...
'', and ''
My Friend Flicka
''My Friend Flicka'' is a 1941 novel by Mary O'Hara, about Ken McLaughlin, the son of a Wyoming rancher, and his mustang horse Flicka. It was the first in a trilogy, followed by ''Thunderhead'' (1943) and ''Green Grass of Wyoming'' (1946). The ...
'', and various TV theaters, anthologies and dramas.
''The Night of the Hunter''
When
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton (; 1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British and American actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play wi ...
personally cast Billy Chapin for the role of young John Harper in his 1955 film classic ''
The Night of the Hunter'', the boy was already considered an "acting technician" among the child performers of his time. After a private meeting with Billy in his
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood ...
home, Laughton told
Davis Grubb
Davis Alexander Grubb (July 23, 1919 – July 24, 1980) was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for his 1953 novel ''The Night of the Hunter (novel), The Night of the Hunter'', which was
The Night of the Hunter (film), adapt ...
, the author of the original story: "What I want is a flexible child, and the boy is exactly that."
Later, Laughton publicly offered praise especially for "...the strength of
hapin'sinnate ability to understand the construction of a scene, its impact and its importance."
Vintage sources claimed that Laughton might find it difficult to direct Chapin, as well as
Sally Jane Bruce, who played his younger sister (Pearl Harper), but contemporary sources and rediscovered archival material from the production of ''The Night of the Hunter'' prove that, aside from a few intergenerational tiffs, the old man and the boy got along wonderfully, even if, according to these sources,
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He is known for his antihero roles and film noir appearances. He received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He received a star on the Holl ...
, who played the bogus preacher Harry Powell, in fact took over some directing tasks.
Though now considered a classic, ''The Night of the Hunter'' was a critical and commercial failure when released, "because of its lack of the proper trappings."
The film was an inductee in the 1992
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...
list.
''Tension at Table Rock'' and career on TV
Chapin's final big screen appearance came just a year after ''The Night of the Hunter'', as young Jody Burrows in the 1956
B-Western ''
Tension at Table Rock'', starring
Richard Egan. From then on his film career declined until he was acting solely on television, where his career eventually ended late in 1959 in an episode of the long-running family series ''
Fury'' (1955–60).
Personal life and death
In her own biography, Chapin's sister Lauren describes Chapin as having had alcohol and drug problems in his twenties and thirties.
Billy Chapin served in the United States Marines, achieved a college education and went into private industry. He married and had three children. In his later years, he was plagued by health problems.
Chapin died December 2, 2016, after a long illness, twenty-six days away from his 73rd birthday. He died of
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...
while suffering from
dementia
Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...
, having previously had a stroke.
Work
Filmography (in order of release)
On the stage
Television (in order of airing)
References
External links
*
*
* Billy Chapin a
BFI - Film and TV Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapin, Billy
1943 births
2016 deaths
American male child actors
American male film actors
American male television actors
20th-century American male actors
Male actors from Los Angeles
United States Marines