Jackie Coogan

He is survived by his grandson, actor Keith Coogan. He starred in "Dance of the Vampires" on Broadway during late 2002 & early 2003 and is currently appearing in Lloyd Webber's new musical "The Woman in White" which opened at the Palace Theatre, London in September 2004. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery. At the gala, Michael was presented with a Birthday cake. He died of heart disease in 1984. He also performed "Music of the Night" at the Inaugural Gala for President George Bush in Washington DC on Jan 19th 1989. His most famous TV role was as Uncle Fester in The Addams Family television series. Crawford has played leading roles in films such as Hello, Dolly (1968), but more often appears on stage, having starred in West End productions such as Billy (based on the novel, Billy Liar) (1974), Barnum (1981) (one of the longest runs by a leading man) and, most notably, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (1986), for which he won an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical), a Tony Award (Best Performance By An Actor In a Lead Role, Musical), a N.Y's Drama Desk Award, and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Achievement in Theatre (Lead Performance).

After the war, Coogan returned to acting, taking mostly character roles and appearing on television. It was one of the BBC's most successful series of all time. He served in Asia, and flew gliders for the transportation of Orde Wingate's Chindits in the Burma Campaign. Although he most often appears in musicals, he became known to millions for his role as the hapless Frank Spencer in the television sitcom, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, for which he performed most of his own stunts. He left film entirely for several years, beginning in 1941, shortly before the United States entered World War II to serve as a flight officer in the Air Force. Crawford began his acting career as a seven-year-old, appearing in the première of Benjamin Britten's work for children, Let's Make an Opera. As he grew older, Coogan's popularity as an actor waned, though he had several well-publicised love affairs with leading Hollywood starlets, including a three-year marriage to Betty Grable. Michael Patrick Dumble-Smith (born January 19, 1942), better known as Michael Crawford, is one of Britain's leading actors, so much so that he was voted into the Top "100 Greatest Britons" in a 2002 poll sponsored by the BBC.

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. He sued them in 1935, but only received $126,000. As a child star, Coogan earned as much as $4 million, but the money was taken by his mother and step-father. As a child actor, he is best remembered for his role as Charlie Chaplin's irrascible sidekick in The Kid (1921) and for the title role in Oliver Twist by Frank Lloyd the following year.

Coogan began his acting career as an infant in both vaudeville and film, with an uncredited role in the 1917 film Skinner's Baby. Jackie Coogan (October 26, 1914 - March 1, 1984) was a American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films.