Child Actors

Child actors are so interesting to me. It seems that there are four categories that they fall into:

1. Was in one or two movies then willingly dropped out of the running. (Charlie Korsmo comes to mind)

2. Was in a whole bunch of stuff and then dropped out. (Macaulay Caulkin, though he is starting to do a few more things as an adult)

3. Was popular then went on to have a very mediocre film career as an adult. (Fred Savage, anyone?)

4. Was popular and managed to make it as an adult as well.


How many #4's do you know of? Drew Barrymore... and.... oh, what's that one guy's name? Riiiight. Makes me wonder what Dakota Fanning and Haley Joel Osment will end up being... wise ups or wash outs? Osment's cute wore off a while ago but he's still making movies. Only time will tell if he should have kept making movies.


Anyway, I bring it up because I was curious one day what ever happened to that kid who played Siggy in What About Bob (one of my Dad's fav movies) and found that that Charlie Korsmo ended up graduating from MIT (physics) and then Yale (passed the bar). So, no longer acting hasn't hurt him a whole lot.


Having recently watched Mr. Hobbs Goes on Vacation (old Jimmy Stewart/Maureen O'Hara flick) and looking up Fabian, the teen heart throb sensation is also very interesting. He was a total hunk at the time (not my type, though) who couldn't sing worth beans. They tailored his image to what tween girls wanted to scream over, doctored his voice on his albums, and then trusted that the sweet young things were screaming too loudly during his concerts to notice his lack of talent. It worked for a while. Poor guy got caught on a payola scandal and was disgraced. I hadn't even heard of him until watching this somewhat obscure movie. Turns out he still appears every now and then for a musical event. Poor guy was just an ill-used pawn.

Pop culture, thou art cruel.