Child Stars Of The 50s And 60s: Then And Now
A few decades after Shirley Temple rose to child stardom, increasingly more child actors started to make their claim to fame through movies and television. During this time, baby boomers were the largest generation and weren’t quite teenagers yet. So, mainstream media started to include actors of a similar age.
Some of the child stars were able to stay in the spotlight well into adulthood, while others simply aged out of Hollywood.
Jerry Mathers As the Beaver
Gerald “Jerry” Patrick Mathers was born on June 2, 1948 in Sioux City, Iowa. He moved around a bit with his three siblings before the family finally settled in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. His career in the entertainment industry began when he booked a modeling gig for a department store at the age of two.
He soon appeared in a few movies before his audition for Leave It to Beaver. The show’s producers chose him for the role after telling them that he’d rather be at a Cub Scout meeting. Mathers played the title role of Beaver Clever and appeared in all 234 episodes.
Jerry Mathers Switches Gears Away from Acting
After Leave It to Beaver Mathers focused his attention on school. While in high school he joined the United States Air Force Reserve and remained in the service until college. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in philosophy.
Through the years he’s appeared on TV reprising his role in various spin-offs and revivals but has mainly managed to stay out of the limelight. Mathers has been married a few times with three children.
Ron Howard Took Hollywood By Storm
Fans of The Andy Griffith Show would best remember Ron Howard as Andy’s young son Opie Taylor from 1960 to 1968. Howard came to Hollywood from Duncan, Oklahoma when his father was serving three years in the United States Air Force.
He was aware of show business from an early age because his mother was an actress and his father worked as a writer, director, and actor. Toward the end of his teenage years, he got a lead part on the hit show Happy Days, which followed his significant role in George Lucas’ film American Graffiti.
Ron Howard Continues the Legacy
Howard soon followed in his father’s footsteps by shifting gears toward directing. Before Happy Days he made his directorial debut with 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, but that was only the start. He has since directed numerous box office hits such as Apollo 13, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code, and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
On top of directing he is the co-chairman of a production company with Brian Grazer called Imagine Entertainment where he produces many popular films and TV shows. Howard married in 1975 and has four children, one of which being actress Bryce Dallas Howard.
Erin and Diane Murphy Learning to Share
Similar to the Olsen twins on Full House, Erin and Diane Murphy shared the role of Samantha’s daughter Tabitha on Bewitched. It’s very common to have young twins share a role in Hollywood because of strict child labor laws that restrict the number of hours kids can be on set.
It may be hard to tell from the photo, but the pair are actually fraternal twins with clear physical differences such as face shape and height. They only shared the role for the first season– from then on, Erin took over and played Tabitha on her own.
Erin and Diane Murphy Led Separate Lives
Although they looked quite similar as children, it’s definitely hard to tell they are twin sisters now. After Bewitched Erin did more acting jobs for TV and commercials and was a swimsuit model. She later went on to host reality TV, do motivational speaking, became a fashion, beauty, and a lifestyle magazine writer.
It seemed like Erin was the twin who was more comfortable in the spotlight because her sister Diane left the entertainment industry at 13-years-old. Diane had to leave Bewitched because she and Erin started looking less like each other as time went on.
Everyone Wants to Work with Angela Cartwright
At the age when most of us were learning our ABCs, Angela Cartwright was appearing opposite Paul Newman in 1956’s Somebody Up There Likes Me. The year after she was already working with Hollywood’s most elite including Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier. Although not bad to start with, Cartwright is mainly known for her TV roles in The Danny Thomas Show and Lost in Space.
Fans may also recognize this photo from her part as Brigitta von Trapp in The Sound of Music. The film earned many distinguished awards including the Best Picture Oscar.
Angela Cartwright Shines in a New Career
Cartwright knew she had a knack for photography early in her teen years. After she started her family with her husband she found herself going back to her true passion. It’s been over three decades, but Cartwright is still practicing photography and her work can be found in her studio in Studio City, California.
When looking back on her life as a child actor she’s still surprised she was able to have the career she did because she considers herself to be a pretty private person. Her most recent credits include guest spots on TV or reunion shows where she opens up about her past roles.
Why Johnny Crawford Needed to Leave Disney
The hit TV series Rifleman wouldn’t have been the same without Johnny Crawford. He played the iconic role of Mark McCain, the son of lead actor Chuck Connors, starting at just 12-years-old. Before Rifleman Crawford was one of the original Mouseketeers, but his contract was cut short after Disney axed half of them at the end of the first season.
His performance on Rifleman earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor, which gave him more opportunities to be on other shows such as Mister Ed and Hawaii Five-O. Crawford also had a popular music career with a few singles that made it onto the Billboard Top 40 list.
Johnny Crawford Lived Life to the Fullest
As Crawford started to age out of Hollywood, he decided to replace acting with dance and music. In the early 1990s, he started a vintage dance orchestra that performed at special events. He also was able to reconnect with his high school sweetheart, and they were married from 1995 until his death in 2021.
After an almost two-decades-long hiatus from acting, he went back to his Western roots to star in 2019’s Bill Tilghman and the Outlaws. Sadly, Crawford passed away in April 2021 at the age of 75.
Jon Provost Steps into the Spotlight
Not many toddlers have the opportunity to star in box office hits. By age four Jon Provost was appearing alongside famous Hollywood actors including Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. A few years later he was cast as the lovable Timmy Martin on Lassie just as its fourth season was about to air.
After one of the lead actors passed away and the others left the show during the middle of the season, Provost became the new lead. He played the role of Timmy until his early teen years and later did a couple of movies before heading to college.
What Lassie Meant to Jon Provost
Jon Provost mainly left Hollywood when he attended Sonoma State University and ended up staying there for a while to sell real estate and do charity work. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, he joined the cast of The New Lassie to play a recurring character because the original show was so close to his heart.
In 1994 Provost earned a coveted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in the mid-2000s he released a couple of memoirs that dealt with his life as a child actor. He still continues to attend celebrity conventions and autograph shows. He’s also performed in a few podcast series.
Hayley Mills Gets a Little Help from Her Father
It can be difficult to break into the entertainment industry, but familial connections often help. Hayley Mills was discovered at the ripe age of 12 when her veteran actor father recommended her to star beside him in the film Tiger Bay. A producer from Disney saw her in the movie and that led to her popular roles in films such as Pollyanna and The Parent Trap.
Her work in Pollyanna even earned her a special Academy Award, making her the last child actor to earn a Juvenile Oscar. She remained with Disney for six years and was arguably the most popular child actor of the 1960s.
Hayley Mills’ Alternative View on Life
Mills didn’t let the idea of child stardom slow her down from acting and she continued to spend her adult years working on various film and TV projects. When she was 20 she met her first husband, Roy Boulting, 33 years her senior. Her current partner, Firdous Bamji, is 20 years her junior.
More recently, she starred in the British TV series Pitching In. She also made appearances in The Wheel of Time and Death In Paradise.
