On this day, March 3, 1937, actor Bobby Driscoll was born.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I'm sure his birthday will be noted at one other site I drop in on frequently.

Actor Bobby Driscoll was #BornOnThisDay,March 3, 1937. Remembered for his film roles as a child (1943-'60). Later as an adult battled unemployment & drug addiction which led to prison. Passed in 1968 (age 31) from #suicide (drug OD) #RIP #GoneTooSoon #MentalHealthMatters #BOTD

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Bobby Driscoll


Driscoll in 1950

Born: Robert Cletus Driscoll; March 3, 1937; Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.
Died: c. March 30, 1968 (aged 31); East Village, Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Resting place: Hart Island's potter's field, New York, U.S.
Occupation: Actor
Years active: 1943–1965
Notable work: Song of the South (1946), So Dear to My Heart (1949), Treasure Island (1950), Peter Pan (1953)

Robert Cletus Driscoll (March 3, 1937 – c. March 30, 1968) was an American actor who performed on film and television from 1943 to 1960. He starred in some of the Walt Disney Studios' best-known live-action pictures of that period: Song of the South (1946), So Dear to My Heart (1949), and Treasure Island (1950), as well as RKO's The Window (1949). He served as the animation model and provided the voice for the title role in Peter Pan (1953). He received an Academy Juvenile Award for outstanding performances in So Dear to My Heart and The Window.

In the mid-1950s, Driscoll's acting career began to decline, and he turned primarily to guest appearances on anthology TV series. He became addicted to narcotics, and was sentenced to prison for illicit drug use. After his release, he focused his attention on the avant-garde art scene. In ill health from his substance abuse, and with his funds depleted, his body was discovered on March 30, 1968, in an abandoned building in the East Village of Manhattan.

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Career

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Later roles

Driscoll began using the name "Robert Driscoll" to distance himself from his youthful roles as "Bobby" ( since 1951, he had been known to friends and family as "Bob", and in Schlitz Playhouse of Stars – Early Space Conquerors, 1952, was credited as "Bob Driscoll" ). He landed two final screen roles: with Cornel Wilde in The Scarlet Coat (1955) and opposite Mark Damon, Connie Stevens, and Frances Farmer in The Party Crashers (1958).

He was charged with disturbing the peace and assault with a deadly weapon, the latter after hitting one of two hecklers with a pistol who had made insulting remarks while he was washing a girlfriend's car; the charges were dropped.

His last known appearances on TV were small roles in two single-season series: The Best of the Post, a syndicated anthology series adapted from stories published in The Saturday Evening Post magazine, and The Brothers Brannagan, an unsuccessful crime series starring Stephen Dunne and Mark Roberts. Both were originally aired on November 5, 1960.

Late in 1961, he was sentenced as a drug addict and imprisoned at the Narcotic Rehabilitation Center of the California Institution for Men in Chino, California. When Driscoll left Chino in early 1962, he was unable to find acting work. Embittered by this, he said, "I have found that memories are not very useful. I was carried on a silver platter—and then dumped into the garbage."

New York City

In 1965, a year after his parole expired, he relocated to New York, hoping to revive his career on the Broadway stage, but was unsuccessful. He became part of Andy Warhol's Greenwich Village art community known as the Factory, where he began focusing on his artistic talents.

He had previously been encouraged to do so by artist and poet Wallace Berman, whom he had befriended after joining Berman's art circle (now also known as Semina Culture) in Los Angeles in 1956. Some of his works were considered outstanding, and a few of his surviving collages and cardboard mailers were temporarily exhibited in Los Angeles at the Santa Monica Museum of Art.

In 1965, early in his tenure at the Factory, Driscoll gave his last known film performance, in experimental filmmaker Piero Heliczer's underground movie Dirt.

Death

On March 30, 1968, two boys playing in a deserted East Village tenement at 371 East 10th St. found Driscoll's body lying on a cot, with two empty beer bottles and religious pamphlets scattered on the ground. A post mortem examination determined that he had died from heart failure caused by advanced atherosclerosis from his drug use. No identification was on the body, and photos shown around the neighborhood yielded no positive identification. His unclaimed body was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in New York City's Potter's Field on Hart Island.

Late in 1969, Driscoll's mother sought the help of officials at Disney studios to contact him, for a hoped-for reunion with his father, who was nearing death. This resulted in a fingerprint match at the New York City Police Department, which located his burial on Hart Island. Although his name appears on his father's gravestone at Eternal Hills Memorial Park in Oceanside, California, his remains are still on Hart Island. In connection with the re-release of Song of the South in 1971, reporters researching the whereabouts of the film's star first reported his death.

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‘Song of the South’- Johnny and Toby

The Brer Patch
1.42K subscribers

7,614 views Aug 11, 2022
In this clip from Walt Disneys ‘Song of the South”(1946), we see Johnny and Toby (Bobby Driscoll and Glenn Leedy) fooling around with “Brer Frog” unbeknownst to Sally. Johnny learns about the scary bullpen and to not dare enter.

The Party Crashers (1958)

Bobby Driscoll Archive
817 subscribers

3,697 views Jan 9, 2019

Mon Mar 4, 2024: On March 3, 1937, actor Bobby Driscoll was born.

Fri Mar 3, 2023: On this day, March 3, 1937, actor Bobby Driscoll was born.

[Aristus]

1. Another child actor chewed up and spit out by Hollywood.