Bobby Driscoll: The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Robert Cletus Driscoll was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on March 3rd, 1937. He and his family moved to Des Moines not long after his birth, but relocated again to Los Angeles because his father constantly suffered from lung issues due to asbestos at his work. In L.A., Driscoll’s parents were encouraged to get him into movies. The local barber who immediately saw the potential of Driscoll and helped to land him an audition for a bit role in the MGM movie Lost Angel (1943). Driscoll won the role, and after that starred in Twentieth Century Fox’s Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944), and in Republic Pictures’ The Big Bonanza (1944) and Identity Unknown (1945). He ultimately caught the attention of Walt Disney, and became the Walt Disney Studio’s first 7-year-contract player ever.
His very first role for Disney was that of Johnny in Song of the South (1946). Two years later, he played Jeremiah “Jerry” Kincaid in So Dear to My Heart (1948) and portrayed himself in Melody Time (1948). Next, he played Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island (1950) and voiced Goofy Jr., Goofy’s son, in the cartoon shorts Fathers Are People (1951) and Father’s Lion (1952). His final and most popular role for Disney was serving as the voice and model for Peter Pan in Peter Pan (1953). At the age of 16, Bobby Driscoll unfortunately caught a severe case of acne, making him look conspicuously unattractive on screen. So sadly and his contract with Disney was terminated. He had been attached to play roles in the Disney films Johnny Tremain (1957) and The Light in the Forest (1958), but was replaced by other actors.
After leaving Disney, Driscoll fell into narcotics as he struggled to find other work. He on occasion found some small work in films like The Scarlett Coat (1955) and television shows like The Millionaire (1955-1960), but his illicit drug use consistently got him in trouble with the law, and he was arrested in 1961. When he was released on parole in 1962, he discovered that no one in the movie/television industry wanted to hire him at all because of his reputation as an addict. He attempted to revive his career on the Broadway stage by traveling to New York, only to discover that his reputation had made him infamous there also. Overwhelmed with depression and completely broke, he disappeared and turned up dead on March 30th, 1968, barely a month after his 31st birthday. Two children discovered his body in a deserted East Village tenement but his identity wasn’t officially determined until a year later, thanks to fingerprints. The cause was declared as heart failure
It is tragic that Bobby Driscoll is best known as the original voice of “Pan,” the boy who didn’t want to grow up considering that he did a grow up to be a young adult, though he didn’t get the chance to live what one would consider a full life. Despite a short and sad life, he leaves a wonderful legacy that lives on in Peter Pan—the character who encouraged us all to have faith, trust, and a little pixie dust!
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