The young who grow

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I was surprised a while back to realise that the son in City Slickers(fab film) was played by a young Jake Gylenhal!

Last week I was happily watching the second of the Back to the future trilogy when all of a sudden I saw a flash of bright blue.
It was a young boys eyes, I thought to myself, that can only be Elijah Wood.I patiently waited til the end credits and low and behold it was Mr Wood aged about 10.

Can you place other child actors in films who have grown up into succesful adult actors?

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Ron Howard who is one of the delights in "The Music Man," and, of course, TV's old sit-com "Happy Days," but he elected to become a director. Despite the controversy, his "Da Vinci Code" has done domestically and internationally nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Whenever I have watch "The Music Man" and Ron turns on the tears, I just melt.

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He also casts his brother in alot of his films, he used to play the blonde haired kid in Gentle Ben.

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Just remembered Christian Bale.who I first discovered playing schoolboy Jim in Empire Of The Sun.Who would have thaught that he would be the current Batman?

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A young Ewan McGregor and Christian Bale in "Velvet Goldmine," a cult hit that really was the turning point in both their careers.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120879/

Not to mention Jonathan Rhys Meyers, recently in a juggernaut of a performance in Woody Allen's ode to Hitchcock, "Match Point."

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My absolute favorite Ron Howard movie is "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" with Glenn Ford. Utterly adorable.

I think Jodie Foster is considered the poster child, more or less.

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Lots of child stars have gone on to have film careers as adults: e.g. Jackie Coogan, Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowall, Kurt Russell, Tatum O'Neal, Drew Barrymore, Lukas Haas, Elijah Wood. I suspect that this thread isn't about those kinds of kids, though, but rather about the adult stars who most people don't realize appeared in some movies as children, or else child stars who most people don't realize still made movies as adults.

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barrythemod wrote:

Just remembered Christian Bale.who I first discovered playing schoolboy Jim in Empire Of The Sun.Who would have thaught that he would be the current Batman?

I can remember seeing that film was on TV one day.I like Bale so I made a point of watching it.
I was watching the film and this 10 year old boy appears and he looks like Bale.
I think to myself 'they will flash forward a few years and Bale will be playing the grown up version of the boy'.
It took a while to sink in that the boy was Bale and the film was about 15 years old!

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joefromchicago wrote:

Lots of child stars have gone on to have film careers as adults: e.g. Jackie Coogan, Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowall, Kurt Russell, Tatum O'Neal, Drew Barrymore, Lukas Haas, Elijah Wood. I suspect that this thread isn't about those kinds of kids, though, but rather about the adult stars who most people don't realize appeared in some movies as children, or else child stars who most people don't realize still made movies as adults.

One of the most interesting examples of this of which i can think is Natalie Wood. I was once lazing through the television channels on a Sunday afternoon, and came across Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hey!, saw a little girl, and immediately said to myself, that's Natalie Wood. I since learned that the picture was released in 1948, and that Natalie was not yet ten years of age when it was made. But she had an expression, and a look about the eyes, which immediately told me it was her.

Jackie Cooper is the only other child star of whom i can think who was always recognizable to me as either a child or an adult. In his case, i saw a photo of him, untitled, but the "pout" which is natural to his mouth and jaw was such that i immediately said to myself "Jackie Cooper"--previously, i had only seen him in Our Gang short films.

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Lightwizard wrote:

Ron Howard who is one of the delights in "The Music Man," and, of course, TV's old sit-com "Happy Days," but he elected to become a director. Despite the controversy, his "Da Vinci Code" has done domestically and internationally nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Whenever I have watch "The Music Man" and Ron turns on the tears, I just melt.

I was surprised you didn't mention The Andy Griffith Show.

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I couldn't find a really good photo example of it, but this photo of Natalie, apprently taken for a clothing catalogue, comes the closest. The expression of the eyes and the mouth said "Natalie Wood" to me immediately, before i knew she was in the film.

http://www.classicmoviekids.com/images/w/woodnatalie/nataliewood2.jpg

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Looking for Natalie, i found this from a French site, which states that although Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! was the second time Marilyn Monroe was in a film, it was the first film relesed with any appearance by her:

http://www.thelatemarilynmonroe.com/filmgeneral/films/scudda.jpg

According to that site, this image of Marilyn was cut from the final print, but that a later scene in which she is standing at the entrance to a church stayed in, although, apparently, it is easy to miss.

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Kurt Russell is a good example of a child actor who went through a bad patch with drugs and alcohol, and then re-created himself, so to speak, to start his career over again, and very successfully.

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/8286/mcpheet.jpg

Kurt in 1963.

Although he has never really been out of work, he was mistrusted in the 1970s. But in the 1980s, he carefully chose his roles, and had the lead role in the 1981 sleeper (made for just $7,000,000) Escape from New York (a John Carpenter film).

http://www.snakeplissken.net/php_escape_ny/images/gallery/2.jpg

Russel as "Snake" Plissken in Escape from New York

http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_actors/actors_films_images/star_gate_kurt_russell.jpg

He probably got his widest exposure in his tough guy persona in the 1994 film, Stargate.

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This is in the film forum but so many young stars come out of TV, right?

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Yeah--Kurt Russell was in motion pictures and film. According to IMDb, he appeared on episodes of Lost in Space, Laredo, The Viriginian, Gilligan's Island and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Conversely, Natalie Wood went from film to television. I once heard Jamie Curtiss speaking about being on a studio contract--she was one of the last actors to sign up with the studio system. When that didn't pan out, she used television to draw attention to herself, and get the exposure she needed to get her career going.

There are a lot of trash motion pictures, and there are first class television productions. I think one can find good work and true art on the big screen and the little screen.

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Yes, I know you are awaiting the return of "Rome," but this Sunday "Deadwood" took a dramatic turn and Swearengen showed his kinder side. I'd rather watch the HBO produced series and films rather than a lot of the junk films that flash across the multiplex screens.

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http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/6246/kurtio7.png

I gained a whole new respect for Kurt Russell when he transformed himself into Elvis Presley. It was an astonishing performance, as I recall.

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I didnt know Russel was a child actor.

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That's cause you weren't raised on Disney movies from the 50's and 60's. Haley Mills was another wonderful actor from that era.

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Setanta wrote:

Jackie Cooper is the only other child star of whom i can think who was always recognizable to me as either a child or an adult.

How about Jackie Coogan:

Child

http://www.southlondontheatre.co.uk/Graphics/jackie_coogan.jpg

Adult

http://www.addamsfamily.com/addams/f_charge.jpg

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The young who grow

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