Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Quiz Results!

Okay, I give up. The quiz I posted a few days ago descended into a chaotic melee of non-response and buffoonery. I don’t know what I expected. Now my brother informs me the answer was obvious all along because you can see the subject’s name while the picture is downloading. Doh! Hey I’ve only been blogging a few months here, gimme a break. Anyways, you still all failed despite that enormous give-away (and the fact that this is a pretty famous person). Really. I don’t know what I expected. No doughnuts for you.

So I’ll quit waiting for the suspense to build since that’s not likely to happen:

He is Freddie Bartholomew, one of the most popular child actors in film history. He starred in David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Captain’s Courageous, and many other films in the 30’s. Now why didn’t you guess that? Maybe you need to get out more! (I know I do).

In answer to part B of the quiz, he is posted here because he lived in my Grandparent’s house before they bought it, and he had the stage built in the attic where my grandparents’ descendants were able to hone their many and varied performance skills and talents.

I feel remiss that I’ve never seen his movies, especially after reading about him. He was a well-loved actor, and had a fascinating life. Maybe this is old news to most people, but no one told me:

He was born in Dublin, but his parents abandoned him when he was a baby to the care of an aunt. After he became famous and successful—the second highest paid child actor after Shirley Temple—his birth-mother came back around, persuaded by low-life drunkards she hung out with, and tried to gain custody of him so she could have his money. Awful woman! After years of legal battles that ate up his fortune, he and his aunt won and she adopted him.

There is a lot more to his story on, you know, Google. He died in 1992. Cheers to Freddie! If any readers have more memories or stories about him, let me know and I’ll post them.

"But mother, I was educated yesterday all day."
–Freddie Bartholomew as Sergei in ANNA KARENINA (1935).

2 comments:

  1. Chaotic melees of non-response and buffoonery? That sounds like an average day of work for me. Anyway, for such an interesting tidbit, you deserve a refreshing Freddie Bartholomew drink!

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  2. Biff-oonery actually!

    ReplyDelete