The Jackie Coogan Act: What Is It?
Jackie Coogan (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor during the silent film era. He started his career in Vaudeville as an infant. Eventually he was discovered by the famous Charlie Chaplin after Chaplin noticed him doing the Shimmy, a popular dance at the time. Jackie was a natural entertainer and Charlie fell in love with The Kid.
As a child actor, Jackie Coogan is best remembered for his role as Charlie Chaplin’s hot-tempered sidekick in the film classic The Kid (1921). He also went on to star in the title role in Oliver Twist and was one of the first stars to get merchandised. The Coogan merchandise included figurines, dolls, records and stationery to name a few.
As a child star, Coogan earned as much as $4 million, but the money was taken by his mother, Lilian, and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, for cocaine and heroin. He sued them in 1935, but only received $126,000. When Coogan fell on hard times, Chaplin gave him some financial support.
The legal battle did, however, bring attention to child actors and resulted in the state of California enacting the California Child Actor’s Bill, sometimes known as the Coogan Bill or the Coogan Act. This requires that the child’s employer set aside 15% of the child’s earnings in a trust, and codifies such issues as schooling, work hours and time-off.
After the a stint as a glider pilot in World War II, Coogan returned to acting, taking mostly character roles and appearing on television in a series McKeever and the Colonel (1962). He finally found his most famous TV role as Uncle Fester in The Addams Family (1964) television series, for which he is fondly remembered by a whole new generation of fans to this day. He had a role in the 1969 movie Marlowe.
In addition to The Addams Family, he appeared a number of times on the Perry Mason series, and once on Emergency! as a junkyard owner who tries to bribe the paramedics, who have come to inspect his property for fire safety. He also was featured in an episode of The Brady Bunch (“Fender Bender”) and continued to guest star on television (including multiple appearances on The Partridge Family, Wild Wild West and Hawaii Five-O) until his retirement in the mid 1970′s.
