Actors Transitioning from Childhood To Adult

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 10:56pm

I was thinking recently about the actors who were able to successfully transition their careers from child actors to adult actors. Do you think they were able to do this because of the high profile material they had as children? Or was it just luck that they got good material as grownups?

For example, Jodie Foster was in Taxi Driver and Oscar nominated.

Judy Garland had The Wizard of Oz and went on to a successful career.

Drew Barrymore had E.T.

Of course these actors had their career points that weren't so hot, but they still came out of childhood with some huge successes.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 11:08pm

That's a very good question.

Some of these child actors made such strong impressions as child actors that they just kept on working into adulthood. Elizabeth Taylor is a good example of that.

Some like Dean Stockwell, found success as a child actor, dropped out for a bit and then returned to bigger success.

Still others did not make a successful transition, and that isn't because they didn't have the talent. Shirley Temple grew up to be a beauty - - and still had talent but the public REFUSED to let her grow up.

Then there are others like Natalie Wood who hit an awkward patch and had to fight to be accepted as an adult. In her case she had to convince Warners and go so far as to use the "casting couch" method with Nicholas Ray to consider her for the role of "Judy" in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. She carried on an affair with Ray during the course of filming, secured herself a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod, a place in pop culture history, a Warner Bros. contract and adult stardom.

A girl's gotta do what she gotta do....

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 11:12pm

I think a lot of it comes down to choices whether as a child (Leo) or as an adult (JGL). And frankly, there is a huge discrepancy in talent one needs to be a child actor and then an adult actor.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 11:20pm

Judy Garland was not simpy lucky, so bad example.

She was Judy effing Garland!

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 11:23pm

Yeah, luck had absolutely nothing to do with her successful transition into adult super stardom. She had the talent.

She was just a force to be reckoned with.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 11:28pm

I never knew that about Natalie Wood. Little Susan from Miracle On 34th Street, oh my.

(I'm still trying to figure out who "JGL" is...sorry, Wynbish!)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 11:31pm

"Judy Garland was not simpy lucky, so bad example."

Judy had huge talent. Even after her voice was shot, she could still put a song across like very few others. There's no doubt she could act as her monologue in A Star Is Born demonstrates and the director didn't cut away from her during that whole sequence.

However, as a child she was pudgy and had buck teeth. So she did have some luck in that she was with people who knew how to cover that. If she didn't have that talent around her, she would have been a stage chanteuse with no movie career.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 11:47pm

Joseph Gordon Levitt!

It took me twenty minutes, but I did it.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 12:04am

Yay Jay!

Christian Bale is a good example of how the kind of work the children do start a path into a great adult career. He starred in a movie for Spielberg when he was 13

The biggest problem, I think, is when performers making the transition try too hard to say, "Hey! I'm an adult now!" like Bieber, Miley, and Shia are doing. You never saw Ryan Gosling do that, or Kirsten Dunst. Updated On: 1/26/14 at 12:04 AM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 12:09am

It took Neil Patrick Harris a long time. I remember back when he did Assassins people still called him Doogie Howser. If I remember correctly it was a label he had to work a long time to get rid of. Of course, now that he's who he is, he jokes about it. But I distinctly remember a time that label annoyed him.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 12:14am

adamgreer, I think that's a good example. Doogie Howser wasn't exactly high art, yet NPH was able to transition.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 12:45am

It looks like both Fanning girls are making it into early adulthood okay, although I think Elle is easily poised to eclipse Dakota in fame if not already.

EDIT: Somehow on a Broadway message board, I forgot about one of the youngest Tony nominees, Anna Kendrick, who made it into adulthood with an Oscar nomination and a Top 10 charted song. It took her a while to break into film but maybe the theater environment was helpful to her early on. Updated On: 1/26/14 at 12:45 AM

[Jon]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 1:06am

Kurt Russell did pretty well.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 7:08am

The factor isn't the profile of the material you may be most known for as a child If it were, both Ha(y)leys - Osment and Mills - might be much bigger stars as adults, and Linda Blair might be having Annette Bening's career.

There are many factors. But one important one is that people aren't at all the same as kids as they are as adults (obviously) and some actors are simply more interesting (or appealing to the gen. public) as kids than they are as adults. While some people (people like Christian Bale, Claire Danes, Natalie Portman, etc.) had juvenile star quality and have equal but quite different adult star quality.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 7:33am

So many things contribute to a successful transition, most of it has to do with public acceptance.

Will they accept their "beloved child" as a teen or young adult or parent or grandparent? I think the bigger the success, the tougher the transition, but still some have made it.

Mickey Rooney is a good example of someone who continued to work his entire life, but never had the huge success he did as a teenager. He had a few tough years, but then emerged as a solidly working character actor, and he stayed there for the remainder of his career.

Roddy McDowall is another one who always worked, but never found the success he had as a child star.

Shirley Temple isn't exactly a fair example. She essentially quit the business after her marriage, and she did have successes (big ones) as a teenager and young adult (Since You Went Away and The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer). She decided to do other things ... but it's a safe bet that she never would have found the enormous success she did as a child, being (arguably) the most successful child star of all-time.

Jackie Coogan, Dean Stockwell, and Jane Withers are examples of child stars who had some pretty lean years in between, then emerged as working character actors later in life. Only to find acceptance with a brand new audience who probably wasn't even aware they were child stars in the first place.

As far as killing a career, everything from acne to awkward growth spurts to voice changes has killed many a child star's career. If the public can't or won't accept them growing up, that's the end of it. (See Haley Joel Osment or Margaret O'Brien.)

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 11:18am

I'm inclined to believe that the majority of child actors grow up okay, usually out of the spotlight.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 1:45pm

Tatiana Maslaney is doing it right. She was critically reviled in Ginger Snaps 2 as a teenager playing an 11 year old because her character was so annoying. Now, she's a Golden Globe nominated actress for her expansive work in Orphan Black.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 4:04pm

Robert Blake until it all went south on him in later life.

[Jon]

Posted: 1/26/14 at 7:37pm

NPH really owes his current popularity to "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle", in which he took the clean-cut Doogie Howser image and turned it upside down. He showed he had a sense of humor about himself.