What Happened To Bobby Driscoll? Check What Really Happened To Bobby Driscoll?

May 2024 · 7 minute read

What Happened To Bobby Driscoll?

Driscoll, who died tragically young, voiced Peter Pan in the 1953 film adaption of the same name, where the actor even impacted the character's appearance. At the age of 31, the actor died in 1968 after a long battle with substance abuse. In the new Rescue Rangers film, Chip (John Mulaney) and Dale (Andy Samberg) meet an elderly Peter Pan (Will Arnett) who is disillusioned with the film industry. He turned to crime as he became too old for his work in the movies. The video, which debuted exclusively on Disney+ on May 20, features ties to hundreds of Disney films from the company's history. However, his adulthood was not as smooth as his childhood. Find out more here!

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What Really Happened To Bobby Driscoll?

— Tony robert (aka Daniel TR Head) (@Dan_Head26) May 30, 2022

A couple of youngsters found a young guy dead on a cot, accompanied by beer bottles and religious pamphlets, in an abandoned Greenwich Village tenement in New York City in March 1968. There were no obvious indications of wrongdoing. He didn't have any identification with him. The identity of the deceased was unclear, and the body was left unclaimed. Authorities asserted the man was dead from artery hardening, a common side effect of long-term heroin abuse, and buried him in a widespread, unmarked paupers' grave on the Bronx's Hart Island along with other unknown bodies and indigent souls. He was later identified as Bobby Driscoll. At the age of 9, Bobby Driscoll became a huge star with a major role in Disney's infamous Song of the South. He received an Academy Award at the age of 12 and at the age of 16, he went on to play the lead role in Disney's iconic animated feature about a youngster who never wants to grow up. What really happened to him? Continue reading to learn more about his tragic story.

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Bobby Driscoll was born on March 3, 1937, in Iowa, the United States. He was a young actor who appeared in multiple films after being spotted at the age of five in a barbershop in Altadena, California. Driscoll, the sole son of an insulation salesman and a former schoolteacher, was found while having a haircut at the age of five. Driscoll's pert nose and freckled countenance were exploited in a series of films beginning with the 1943 film Lost Angel, in which he played a tiny part alongside Margaret O'Brien. Before his blockbuster performance as Johnny, a 7-year-old boy who visits his grandfather's plantation in Song of the South, Driscoll appeared in nine films during a three-year period. Driscoll went on to become the first male actor to get a Disney contract. Treasure Island, Peter Pan, and So Dear to My Heart were among Driscoll's four Disney films, which earned him the Juvenile Academy Award in 1950, along with his appearance in RKO Pictures' The Window. By the time he voiced Peter Pan at the age of 16, Driscoll had lost the playful smile that had gotten him employed as a child. He was just another adolescent with severe acne. After starring in many of Disney's biggest live-action hits during the 1940s and early 1950s, he was fired when he outgrew his younger roles. The studio's contract was terminated in March 1953.

Some of Bobby Driscoll’s movies include 

When Driscoll left Disney, his parents put him in a public Los Angeles high school, where he was tormented and started using drugs. His parents finally re-enrolled him into the Hollywood Professional School for Child Actors, but his drug addiction did not go away. In 1956, he was accused of marijuana possession, but the charges were dropped. However, his reputation had been harmed, and he was only able to find a few television assignments. In 1958, he made his final movie, The Party Crashers, and in 1960, he made his final television appearance in a Rawhide episode.

After his divorce from Marilyn Jean Rush in 1961, Driscoll was sentenced to a drug treatment center in California. He was unable to find work as an actor after his release. He moved to New York City in 1965 in the hopes of finding a job on Broadway, but his plans did not work out. To pursue his other artistic pursuits, he joined Andy Warhol's The Factory group. Dirt, an experimental film produced in 1965, was his last known cinematic performance.

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Whatever Happened To Bobby Driscoll?

— Tony robert (aka Daniel TR Head) (@Dan_Head26) May 30, 2022

Bobby Driscoll's death was not revealed to the media or the general public for more than four years, which was one of the saddest aspects of his existence. The press asked where Driscoll had gone when Disney re-released Song of the South in 1971. This led to the discovery that he died in March 1968 in New York City from atherosclerosis-related heart failure. Driscoll's remains were unidentified and interred in a pauper's grave on Hart Island. When his mother tried to contact Bobby Driscoll before his father died in 1969, she was informed that he had died. His mother and Disney found a fingerprint match at the New York police department after he had been dead for nearly a year. Driscoll was 31 years old when he received the Academy Juvenile Award for So Dear to My Heart and The Window in 1950. Following the film's debut on Disney+, a number of Disney fans took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with the Peter Pan story due to Driscoll's unfortunate life. Many others chastised Disney for allegedly making a reference to the late actor's life, with some even accusing the studio of canceling his agreement because he had reached "puberty."

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Bobby Driscoll Biography

Specifications

Details

Name

Bobby Driscoll

Nickname

Robert Cletus Driscoll

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

3rd Mar, 1937

Date of Death

30th March, 1968

Aged

31

Birth Place

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.

Country

United States

Nationality

American

Height

5' 7" (1.70 m)

Weight

Weight

Profession

American Child Actor

Bobby Driscoll Wife and Children

Bobby and his long-time girlfriend, Marilyn Jean Rush, eloped in Mexico City on December 3, 1956, to avoid their parents' objections to their marriage. Their wedding, however, was broken (not officially recognized) and they were separated for a few months. Finally, on March 8, 1957, the pair were married in a ceremony in Los Angeles. To help fund his marriage, the actor relocated to Santa Monica and began working as a clerk in the Pacific Palisades barracks. Bobby gave birth to his first child, a male, sometime in August, the first of three children for this married pair. In 1958, he gave birth to his second child, a girl. Bobby was accused of narcotics allegations in October 1959 but was later found not guilty. Bobby's third child, and second daughter, were born a few months later, the day after his 23rd birthday. Bobby split from his wife Marilyn the same year, concluding in a divorce later that year. Bobby met Sharon "Didi" Morrill near the end of 1963, and their romance was instantaneous. The couple hugged each other as husband and wife after dating for a while. The wedding took place at Zack Walsh's home, but the union was not legal because the paperwork was never completed.

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Bobby and Didi afterward moved to Beverly Glen, where they began smuggling cocaine into New York City. Didi returned to Los Angeles after hiding in Canada, while Bobby left for New York. Driscoll had broken up with Didi by the end of 1967. From then on, his life devolved into a harrowing shambles, without either fame or fortune on his resume. He didn't have his health either, having been diagnosed with hepatitis after a long period of substance usage.

What Happened To Bobby Driscoll

What Really Happened To Bobby Driscoll

Whatever Happened To Bobby Driscoll

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