Jackie Coogan: 16 Facts About ‘The Addams Family,’ Childhood Stardom, Suing His Mother and Much More

Jackie Coogan The Addams Family . It may seem odd to have it presented that way, as if they were a single entity, but in the minds of many people, Jackie Coogan and The Addams Family are exactly that. But as it turns out, while they share a memorable pop culture history, separately — sheerly in terms of their individual journeys — Jackie leaves the family Addams in the historical dust.

Half a century before he became Uncle Fester, John "Jackie" Leslie Coogan was born on October 26, 1914 in Los Angeles. Discovered as a young child by legendary silent film star Charlie Chaplin, he became the biggest child star in the world, earning millions before his 21st birthday, only to discover at that point that he was actually broke thanks to his mother and step-father.

In between all of that, he was purportedly part of a crowd involved in the hanging of a pair of murderers, survived a car accident that took his father's life and was married to actress and pin-up girl Betty Grable — and this was still 30 years before Jackie Coogan The Addams Family .

1. Jackie Coogan made his first vaudeville appearance at 16 months

To get a sense of Jackie Coogan's background, one can look at a profile that was presented of him onJanuary 1, 1922 in The Tacoma Daily Ledger , which began with discussion of his birth to Jack and Lillian Coogan.

"Little then did that proud mother and father realize how important their pride and joy was going to be within a few years' time," they write. "When Jackie was hardly 2 months old, the Coogan family packed their home and journeyed northward to San Francisco, where Jackie's grandma resided. There Jackie made his home with grandmother while Mr. and Mrs. Coogan traveled eastward in vaudeville.

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"After spending a year at grandma's, Jackie's parents came home and took the little fellow with them on their continuation of their vaudeville tour. Jackie was very popular among the many actors on the bills from the very incipiency."

When Jackie was 16 months, Jack Coogan was on the vaudeville stage telling one of his standard jokes, when the audience laughed louder than than ever had before — it turns out that Jackie was sitting at the back of the stage with "the same old grin that is now making him a friend of millions of people throughout the world today. To say Jackie was a 'riot' would be putting it mildly ... From that time on, Jack Sr. never lost an opportunity to bring the youngster before the footlights."

2. He was performing by about age 4 and discovered by Charlie Chaplin

"When Jackie reached the age of four-and-a-half," The Tacoma Daily Ledger continued their profile, "his father joined the vaudeville offering of Ammette Kellerman, the famous diving woman. The act took the Coogan family over the Orpheum circuit. Jackie played an important part in the big variety offering and one of his little 'stunts' was an impersonation of [stage actor] David Warfield, which he did with much dramatic ability.

"During the Los Angeles engagement, Charlie Chaplin and several friends attended the performance. Charlie did not pay much attention to the show until he spied Jackie. Friends tell the story of Charlie sat erect, eyes glued on Jackie Coogan as he went thorugh his work. They say he was heard to fairly speak aloud the words 'Marvelous' and 'Wonderful' and 'Where did that great boy come from?'

"Several days later, Charlie met Jackie — asleep in the lobby of the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles. When Charlie saw Jackie there, he was fast asleep with legs cuddled under his little body and probably dreaming of toyland or Santa Claus. Charlie expressed the desire to meet Jackie. Somebody shook the little fellow. Now when the average boy is asked to shake hands with Charles Spencer Chaplin, what happens? Excitement galore throbs through his body. His blood rushes at a mile a minute through his veins. But not so with young Mr. Coogan.

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'Jackie,' said the friend, 'here's Charlie Chaplin.'

"Jackie arose, rubbed his eyes, put out his hand, and said, 'Pleased to meet you, Mr. Chaplin,' and promptly climbed back into the big chair, folded his legs into the big chair and promptly went back to sleep. Now, as a matter of fact, nothing made so great a hit with the famed comic as this. From then on, Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan were the best of pals."

3. Jackie Coogan co-starred with Charlie Chaplin in The Kid

Initially, Chaplin cast him in a small part in the 1919 film A Day's Pleasure followed by a more substantial role in 1921's The Kid , as a child who's been abandoned that's being raised by Chaplin's famous Tramp character. Pointed out The Tacoma Daily Ledger , "We all have heard of the success of that picture. It made Jackie and it brought back Charlie Chaplin as the greatest screen artist the world has ever known. Jackie starred on The Kid at the age of four-and-a-half-years. When he filmed the final scene, he was nearly 6 years old."

The success of The Kid led to Jack Coogan being signed by Sol Lesser to become a producer of his son's movies, with he and Lesser at the helm of Jackie Coogan Productions.

4. Jackie Coogan was the most popular child actor in the world at the time

"He is the best known child in the world and can rank himself right on the uppermost run of filmdom's long and narrow ladder of fame," explained The Tacoma Daily Ledger . "His fan letter list as as great as that of Charlie Chaplin himself. He has been photographed with more famous people than any other film star and his earnings from his picture contracts will net him an amount that will make him absolutely independent for the rest of his life before he reaches the age of 10. It is rumored that his profits on his present contract will total the million dollar mark this year alone."

Jackie Coogan's star was quickly ascending when he assumed the title role in the 1922 silent movie adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1838 novel, Oliver Twist . Commented The State on December 31, 1922, "The presence of Jackie Coogan in any picture assures the presence of a multitude of youngsters in any theater where the gifted boy appears ... "

Interestingly, this version of Oliver Twist was considered lost to time like so many silent films have been, but then a print was found in Yugoslavia in 1973. There were no English language subtitles, but Blackhawk Films, enlisting the aid of Jackie Cooper and producer Sol Lesser, were able to reproduce them.

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5. As early as 1923, there were concerns about Jackie Coogan's finances

On February 28, 1923, the Cumberland Argus offered up a story that in a sense would turn out to be prophetic in that it discussed the fortune that Jackie Coogan was amassing not only from his film salaries, but merchandise being produced featuring his likeness.

"There is an opinion among certain dubious persons, more eager to believe ill than good, that there will be precious little left when the period of Jackie's precocious earning power has passed," writes Walter Anthony. "Recently these questions were given emphatic answer in a petition filed and granted in the superior court by Mrs. Jack Coogan to be appointed the legal guardian of her child, Jack Coogan, Jr. The petition was also signed by the boy's devoted dad. Why, it may be asked, should parents seek to secure the legal guardianship of their own child?"

At the time, parents of a minor child had a right to every dollar earned by their child to be used any way they saw fit. Seeking the court to recognize them as legal guardians meant that, theoretically, expenditures of every kind had to be approved by the courts.

"One half of every dollar paid Jackie Coogan every Tuesday is deposited by his father and mother in a trust fund standing in Jackie's name and to be turned over to him on his majority," the paper reported. "The other half has been invested in Jackie's home in Hollywood, which stands in his name; in real estate in and around Los Angeles, and, on the best advice available in other forms of investments seeming the safest and soundest — and all of this, of course, in Jackie's name and for his personal and ultimate advantage."

The subject would come up again years later in the form of what would be nick-named "The Coogan Bill."

As to that merchandise, some 40 years later, in 1964, the Kentucky New Era interviewed Jackie Coogan, who said, "We pioneered the commercial tie-up market. At one time, my name was on 50 or 60 different items, from dolls to pencils boxes. Peck and Peck paid paid us $100,000 per year to put out a Jackie Coogan line of clothes. Millions and millions of caps were sold."

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6. The 'Children's Crusade' of 1924

Jackie Coogan used his fame for good in 1924, working with the charity organization Near East Relief, traveling across the United States as well as Europe on what was called a "Children's Crusade" to raise money to provide food, clothing and other contributions for children here and abroad. His efforts were honored by officials in the U.S. and Greece, and he was also granted an audience with Pope Pius XI.

7. In 1928, his mother was sued for marital infidelity

On March 2, 1928, The Hustler reported that Jackie's mother, Lillian Coogan, was being sued for $750,000 by one Mildred Bernstein for having induced her husband, Arthur Bernstein — business manager of Jackie Coogan Picture Corporation — "to violate his marriage vows." Mrs. Bernstein was also filing for divorce.

8. Jackie made his talking movie debut in 1930

Between 1923 and 1927, he appeared in 11 films before stepping away for a few years. Upon his return, it was in 1930 for his first talkie as the title role in Tom Sawyer .

Heralded The News and Observer in November 2 of that year, "After several years of retirement while taking time out to grow up, Jackie Coogan as Tom Sawyer makes his second auspicious debut on the screen, and his first in talking pictures ... and it goes without saying that Jackie Coogan is the ideal Tom, the Tom Sawyer as you've always imagined him. Jackie makes his portrayal of Tom so real and interesting that you yourself wish you were carefree a kid again."

He would reprise the role in 1932's Huckleberry Finn .

9. His life began to hit a downward turn starting in 1933

Wanting to experience more of a normal life, Jackie Coogan began attending college, though in 1932 he ended up dropping out of Santa Clara University due to poor grades (he would drop in and out of colleges over time). The next year, a student he was close friends with, Brooke Hart, heir to a successful San Jose department store, was kidnapped shortly after he drove out of the college parking lot and murdered by Thomas Thurmond and Jack Holmes — even before they demanded $40,000 from the family.

The two men, placed in the San Jose jail, were accosted there by a mob that broke them out, beat them and promptly hanged both men in a nearby park, with reports stating that Jackie Coogan was a part of it, even going so far as to be one of the people holding the rope used for the lynching. As it turned out, all officials turned a blind eye to the murders of Thurmond and Holmes and no charges were pressed.

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10. Jackie Coogan's father was killed in a 1935 car crash

In May of 1935, Jackie Coogan, who was 20 at the time, lost his father in a car accident in which he himself suffered two broken ribs and severe bruising. Other victims of the crash were a young star named Junior Durkin, playwright Robert J. Horner and Charles Jones, the foreman of the Coogan ranch.

Reported the Daily Record on May 6, "A passing motorist said that Jackie told him he was in the back seat when the car crashed into a pile of rocks, plunged down an embankment and rolled over four times. The occupants apart from Jackie were thrown out with such force that their injuries must have been almost immediately fatal. Jackie added that an unidentified car had driven them off the road. 'My father was forced to drive the car on to the shoulder at the side of the road,' he further explained. 'The next thing I remember, we were going off the embankment end over, and spiraling at the same time. I was knocked down in the seat, but pulled myself up and leaped out.'"

A separate report in The Omaha Evening Bee-News states, "Jackie, stunned by shock, clambered down the embankment, dragged his father — whom he'd always called his best pal — to the roadside. Heedless of his hurts, the youth again struggled to the rocks, brought young Durkin to his father's side. Both still breathed. Beside the wreck lay the other two, both dead."

11. Money changes his life ... and not in a good way

Back in 1927, specifically on October 25, The Sioux City Journal noted that Jackie Coogan had already had about $1.5 million invested in Southern California real estate with "plenty more" money for investment. "The announcement of Jackie Coogan's rise to wealth is no surprise to anyone at all familiar with his work on the screen and the cost of motion picture production," they write. "As to the future of Jackie Coogan, no one can predict with any certainty what it will be. Some may expect him to go on to greater triumphs than he yet has known, to add many more millions to his present fortune.

"But others will insist that Jackie Coogan's best days in pictures are behind him, that he can never be so adorable and appealing as a full grown man as he was when a child with curls. It would follow, too, that if Master Coogan did not make the same powerful appeal when he became Mr. Coogan, the money would not roll in so fast nor would his fame increase. So one may suggest that a case is presented in which an individual has reached his prime before he entered his teens. At any rate, if careful, he need not worry about his economic future.."

As it turns out, they were wrong.

Flash forward to September 29, 1935 and an article in The News and Observer , in which they discuss the fact he was soon to turn 21, noted, "The huge sums he made in his heyday weren't spent. They were carefully salted away for him by his parents, and a trust fund of $1 million is waiting for him. He will come into $250,000 of it, according to reliable reports, when he is 21 on October 26; he will get another $250,000 when he is 25 and will receive the balance when he is 30."

On October 29, 1935, The Caledonian-Record puts a bit of a stop to that sort of talk — which should have been something of a red flag — stating, "His mother, Mrs. Lillian Coogan, has estimated no sudden change will occur in her son's financial status as a result of his coming of age. He now receives a monthly allowance — amount, secret ... while withholding information as to the size of Jackie's fortune, Mrs. Coogan admits it is chiefly invested in Los Angeles and Hollywood real estate."

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Jackie had his own plans, telling the Omaha Sunday Bee-News on October 27, 1935, "I'm going to produce movies just as soon as I graduate from the University of Southern California next June. Of course, if an attractive picture offer should come up, I'd drop out of university for a year or so to make the picture. I'm young yet and have lots of time to get through school. Eventually I plan to produce my own pictures — I've always wanted to be a producer. [But] I'm going to very careful with all funds."

12. Jackie Coogan sues his mother and stepfather

On April 12, 1938, The Journal Times reported that Jackie Coogan had filed a lawsuit against his mother and stepfather (after the death of his father, who he held blameless in the suit, she married Arthur Bernstein) for depriving him of his estimated $4 million. Her response according to the paper? "He says that he has nothing and that I refused to give him any part of the estate. No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything. Every dollar a kid earns before he is 21 belongs to his parents." Wow !

According to Coogan, the widely-reported trust fund of $1 million never turned out to have ever existed.

Jackie's wife at the time, Betty Grable (more on this later), told the court that when her engagement to Jackie was announced in December 1935, her mother actually received a call from Lillian, who said, "If Betty thinks she is marrying a rich boy, she is very much mistaken. He hasn't a cent. Jackie is a pauper." Grable's response was, "If Jack had no money, that made no difference to me. Jackie and I were in love and money didn't — and doesn't — mean a thing. It didn't make me give Jack up and it never will!"

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As a result of the suit, the courts temporarily stopped the Bernsteins from using any additional funds until a further hearing. Jump ahead to May 2, 1938, and the Leader-Tribune reported, "Superior Judge Emmet HJ. Wilson confirmed the appointment of a receiver to take charge of assets having an estimated value of $250,000, to which sum the earnings of the star apparently have dwindled," and that the actor has "a legal cause of action" and could demand an early trial of his accounting suit against his mother and step-father.

In the end, on March 19, 1939, Jackie Coogan signed a settlement with his mother and stepfather for $126,000 out of the $4 million suit that had been filed, putting the whole ugly affair behind him — if that was really possible.

It is difficult to say something good could come out of this, although it did result in the California Child Actor's Bill — the aforementioned "Coogan Bill" — which required that 15% of a child actor's earnings be set aside by his or her employer in a trust.

Jackie would continue to work and live comfortably, but never had the kind of success he did as a kid again.

13. Jackie Coogan and World War II

If there was ever a time where people put their personal problems behind them, it was during World War II, and Jackie Coogan certainly believed that. The National Museum of the United States Air Force describes his service to America during that time as follows:

"Jackie Coogan enlisted in the Army on March 4, 1941. When the U.S. entered World War II as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack, Coogan requested transfer to the AAF as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. He was sent to glider school at Lubbock, Texas, and Twentynine Palms, Calif.

"Upon graduation, he was made a Flight Officer. He then volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group being formed by the famous Col. Phil Cochran. In December 1943, the unit was sent to India where, using Waco CG-4A gliders, it airlifted crack British troops under Gen. Orde Wingate during the night aerial invasion of Burma (March 5, 1944), landing them in a small jungle clearing 100 miles behind Japanese lines. Coogan returned to the United States in May 1944 and was discharged in December. 1945."

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14. Back to his career ....

There had been so much personal drama in Jackie Coogan's life through much of the 1930s, that it would seem he had given up acting. In truth, in the latter half of that decade he starred in Home on the Range (1935), College Swing (1938), Million Dollar Legs (1939) and Sky Patrol (1939). After that, there would be three films in the 1940s, and nearly 40 others before his final appearance in 1984's The Prey , but nothing that really stands out, his Hollywood heyday truly being in his youth.

Television would provide many guest starring opportunities. Additionally, he was a regular on Cowboy G-Men (1952 to 1953) and McKeever and the Colonel (1962 to 1963), and then there was a little sitcom called The Addams Family .

15. Jackie Coogan The Addams Family

In some ways it's amazing that Jackie Coogan only portrayed Uncle Fester on The Addams Family for two years, from 1964 to 1966, given that he and the show are still so much a part of our collective pop culture memory, but such is the nature of television shows from that era.

Based on the single panel comic strips of Charles Addams, the series centers on the title family, led by Gomez and Morticia (John Astin and Carolyn Jones) and including their children Wednesday (Lisa Loring) and Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax), Grandmama (Blossom Rock), butler Lurch (Ted Cassidy), Thing (a disembodied yet very mobile hand), occasionally Cousin Itt, a derby and sunglasses-wearing, hair-covered, weird-talking dude; and, of course, Uncle Fester (Jackie).

And whereas The Munsters over at 1313 Mockingbird Lane are made up mostly of supernatural beings, the Addams are largely just ... macabre. Although Lurch is , apparently, a zombie of sorts and then there is Thing, Itt ... and just how would you classify Fester?

Well, at least Jackie Coogan had his own thoughts on the subject, as he shared with The Press Democrat in 1965: "Fester has a lot going for him. He's 120 volt AC and DC and he's great with dynamite. His only trouble is that he's one of the great losers of our time. He would make a great spy, but he kind of stands out in a crowd.

"Fester," he added, "appeals to youngsters, because he thinks like they do. Every time he suggests, 'Let's shoot 'em in the back,' the kids share his straightforward approach to the situation. Fester never talked in the Addams Family cartoons, so I raised my voice an octave and gave him a beetling look. He's my kind of people. He's an irascible old goat, and I can't honestly say why everyone loves him.."

Apparently it wasn't all joyful to him, as his daughter, Leslie, shared with journalist Stephen Cox: “He had been doing the part for a while, I guess, and he came home crying-sober. He said, ‘I used to be the most beautiful child in the world and now I’m a hideous monster.’ That was heavy. Something just dawned on him one day. It hit him. He’d let go of it later, but it really had to do with his lost childhood. Later he came to cope with the Fester character and loved doing the character and loved doing the show. Then he cherished it.”

Jackie Coogan would voice the character of Uncle Fester in a 1972 installment of the animated The New Scooby-Doo Movies titled "Wednesday is Missing" as well as 16 episodes of the animated 1973 version of the show. There would also be the 1977 live action reunion TV movie Halloween with The Addams Family , which was hoped would go to series, but didn't.

16. The rest of his life

As previously noted, Jackie Coogan was somebody who always worked, popping up in different films over the decades (17 of them following The Addams Family ) and a couple of dozen guest appearances on different television shows (including an episode of The Brady Bunch , where he faked an injury and was threatening to sue the family).

In his private life, he was married four times, his first three wives being actresses: Betty Grable from 1937 to 1939 (part of the reason they fell apart was his feelings of inadequacy over not being able to support her due to his mother and step-father squandering his fortune), Flower Parry from 1941 until 1943 (they had a son) and Ann McCormack from 1946 until 1951 (they had a daughter). Finally, there was dancer Dorothea Lamphere, who he married in 1952 and was with until his death in 1984, the pair having two children together (a daughter and son).

Jackie, who had been suffering from heart and kidney ailments — which in itself followed a long history of hypertension — passed of heart failure on March 1, 1984 at 69. While that was a relatively young age, what an incredible amount of living he squeezed into those years.

"I have no regrets," he once reflected. "I manage to live the way I want to, and I've never had to worry about finding jobs."

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