John Leslie Coogan October 26, β March 1, was an American actor and comedian who began his film career as a child actor in silent films. He later sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers, the California Child Actor's Bill , widely known as the "Coogan Act".
Coogan continued to act throughout his life, later earning renewed fame in middle age portraying Uncle Fester in the s television series The Addams Family. Charlie Chaplin discovered him in the Orpheum Theatre , a vaudeville house in Los Angeles, on the stage doing the shimmy , a then-popular dance.
Coogan's father was also an actor. Coogan was a natural mimic and delighted Chaplin with his abilities. Chaplin cast him in a small role in A Day's Pleasure The following year, Chaplin cast Coogan as the abandoned child raised by his Tramp character in the silent comedy-drama The Kid Coogan was one of the first stars to be heavily merchandised. Peanut butter, stationery, whistles, dolls, records, coins and figurines were among the Coogan-themed merchandise on sale.
Coogan had been privately tutored until the age of 10 and then sent to a military academy and prep schools until he was He entered Santa Clara University in , flunked out, and transferred to the University of Southern California , intending to obtain a business or law degree. In May , year-old Coogan was the sole survivor of a car crash on the winding San Diego-Imperial Valley Highway, in eastern San Diego County that killed his father, his year-old best friend, actor Trent "Junior" Durkin , [ 7 ] their ranch foreman Charles Jones, and actor and writer Robert J.
The party was returning from a day of dove hunting just over the Mexican border. With Coogan's father at the wheel, the car was forced off the mountain highway near Pine Valley by an oncoming vehicle and rolled down an embankment. Jackie, who had been thrown from the rumble seat, suffered two broken ribs and bruises. While a child actor, Coogan worked with Near East Relief and toured across the United States and Europe in on a "Children's Crusade" as part of his fundraising drive. He also had an audience with Pope Pius XI.
