Video: The Unbelievable Story of the Peter Pan Prototype: The Ruined Talent of a Disney Star
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Bobby Driscoll's film career began at the age of 5, 5 and developed so rapidly and successfully that he soon became one of the most famous American child actors. At the age of 12, he won an Oscar and worked with the Disney studio for many years, serving as the prototype for the cartoon character Peter Pan. But its fall was as rapid as its rise. Why one of Disney's favorites passed away unnamed and forgotten at the age of 31 - further in the review.
Bobby Driscoll was born in 1937 to a salesman and a former school teacher. Everyone paid attention to his artistry from childhood. He got the opportunity to develop his abilities when the family moved from Iowa to California. In Los Angeles, the boy passed his first casting and at the age of 5, 5 he got his first role in the film "Lost Angel". This work was followed by new proposals from directors, and by the age of 10, the young actor was already receiving up to $ 400 a week.
At the age of 9, Bobby Driscoll signed with Disney, the first of all child actors. In those years he was called "an actor's miracle." At the age of 12, the boy won the Oscar for the leading role in the film "Window" and received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
At Disney Studios, Bobby Driscoll has starred in Song of the South, So Dearest to My Heart and Treasure Island. But he earned great popularity not only as a film actor, but also as a prototype for the cartoon character - Peter Pan - in the cartoon of the same name in 1953.
Since 1937, when Disney began producing full-length, color, hand-drawn cartoons, it has used a certain technology to create them. Real actors served as models for the cartoon characters. They were dressed the same as their heroes, showed them storyboards of their episodes and asked them to act out all the movements. At this time, animators were sketching sketches of live actors. Starting with "Cinderella" in 1950, the sitters were filmed, and then the shots with the models were "sketched". Actors in costumes acted out the whole plot in front of the cameras, and the animators then created a cartoon, taking as a basis the actors' appearance, movements and facial expressions. The process was very laborious and time-consuming - only 23-24 seconds of material was created in a week, but the result was worth it. Thanks to this technology, the cartoon characters looked and moved like real people. In this way, the effect of maximum life-likeness was achieved.
Cartoon characters were very similar to their prototypes, and it was easy to recognize many famous actors of that time in them. When Walt Disney began work on the Peter Pan cartoon, he had no doubts about who should be the model for the protagonist. At that time, Bobby Driscoll had already starred in several studio feature films and established himself as one of the most talented and promising actors. Bobby easily got used to the image of a boy who does not want to grow up. He coped with many tricks, flying under the ceiling on cables, no worse than adult professional actors.
Bobby Driscoll was called one of the most beloved young Disney actors. He spoke more than once about his giftedness and admitted that the spontaneity of this guy was lacking in many male characters in previous cartoons. Disney called him "the living embodiment of his youth." He greatly appreciated the young actor and gave him the opportunity to reveal his talent to the fullest. Bobby not only became the model for the cartoon Peter Pan, but also voiced his character. Alas, this work was the last pinnacle in his acting career. The cartoon "Peter Pan" was released in 1953, but success and recognition came to him much later, only years later. It is still called one of the most underrated Disney cartoons of the time.
The decline of Bobby Driscoll's film career was as rapid as the rise. After Peter Pan, the studio canceled his contract early. Why this happened is not known exactly. According to one version, acne appeared on the actor's face due to youthful hormonal problems, and make-up artists had to spend too much time on it. According to another, more likely, version, the boy simply matured, changed, and the studio no longer found roles for him - Disney believed that with such an appearance he looked more like a bully than a pretty fairy-tale boy. Bobby Driscoll himself explained it this way: "".
Other directors, perceiving him exclusively as a "Disney child", offered him only frivolous roles. He even changed his name from Bobby to Robert, but that didn't help. His parents took him out of acting school in Hollywood and sent him to a regular one. There he studied poorly and did not find a common language with his peers. Bobby said, "" Spoiled by heightened attention and universal adoration, he suddenly found himself in the usual environment of an ordinary teenager. Driscoll tried his luck on television and in the early 1950s. starred in several television projects and series, but he no longer had his former glory. Bobby tried to find work on Broadway, but did not succeed there either.
Creative unfulfillment led to despair and depression, from which he sought salvation in illegal drugs. This addiction undermined his health. He was sent to a clinic for treatment, after which Driscoll for a while joined Andy Warhol's studio and began painting paintings, which were even exhibited in the Los Angeles Museum. But Bobby Driscoll never got rid of his addictions. In the last few months of his life, he wandered and wandered about abandoned houses, about which he said: "". In one of them, his body was found almost a month after he turned 31. There were empty alcohol bottles next to him. The reason for leaving - an alleged heart attack - was not officially confirmed. He had no documents with him, and the former Hollywood star was buried as a vagabond, nameless, in a grave for the poor. His body was identified by fingerprints only a few months later …
Other prototypes of Disney characters have more fortunes: 5 actresses who gifted their looks to cartoon princesses.
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