Rex Haddon Downing (April 21, 1925 – November 18, 2020) was an American actor as a child and youth.
Early years
Downing attended
Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.
Histo ...
.
Career
Rex Downing started his film career in several
Our Gang
''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the ...
comedies, but his roles there and in feature films were usually small. He received first attention when he played Young Heathcliff in the 1939
William Wyler film ''
Wuthering Heights'' (1939), which was nominated for eight
Academy Awards. In the following time Downing had a major role in the B-Movie serial ''
Mandrake the Magician
''Mandrake the Magician'' is a syndicated newspaper comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloon ...
'' (1939; serial) and played the younger version of
Tyrone Power's character in ''
Blood and Sand
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...
'' (1941).
After his service in
World War II, he returned to film business in 1946, but only got small parts. He left film business in 1948 and later became a teacher around Los Angeles.
Personal life
His younger brother Barry Downing (1931–1995) was also a child actor.
Downing died in November 2020 at the age of 95.
Rex Haddon Downing obituary
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Filmography
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Downing, Rex
1925 births
2020 deaths
Male actors from San Francisco
American male child actors
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
United States Navy personnel of World War II
Educators from California
Military personnel from California