Jackie Coogan

John Leslie Coogan October 26 1914 March 1 1984 known professionally as Jackie Coogan was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films Many years later he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family In the interim he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers Coogan enlisted in the US Army in March 1941 After the attack on Pearl Harbor that December he requested a transfer to Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience Graduating the Advanced Glider School with the Glider Pilot aeronautical rating and the rank of Flight Officer he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group In December 1943 the unit was sent to India He flew British troops the Chindits under General Orde Wingate on March 5 1944 landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles 160 km behind Japanese lines in the Burma Campaign After the war Coogan returned to acting taking mostly character roles and appearing on television From 1952 to 1953 he played Stoney Crockett on the syndicated series Cowboy GMen He gueststarred on NBCs The Martha Raye Show He appeared too as Corbett in two episodes of NBCs The Outlaws with Barton MacLane which aired from 19601962 In the 19601961 season he gueststarred in the episode The Damaged Dolls of the syndicated crime drama The Brothers Brannagan In 1961 he gueststarred in an episode of The Americans an NBC series about family divisions stemming from the Civil War He also appeared in episode 37 titled Barney on the Rebound of The Andy Griffith Show which aired October 31 1961 He had a regular role in a 196263 NBC series McKeever and the Colonel He finally found his most famous television role as Uncle Fester in ABCs The Addams Family 19641966 He appeared as a police officer in the Elvis Presley comedy Girl Happy in 1965 He appeared four times on the Perry Mason series including the role of political activist Gus Sawyer in the 1963 episode The Case of the Witless Witness and TV prop man Pete Desmond in the final episode The Case of the Final Fadeout in 1966 He was a guest several times on The Red Skelton Show appeared twice on The Brady Bunch The Fender Benders and Double Parked I Dream of Jeannie as Jeannies uncle Suleiman Maharaja of Basenji Family Affair Heres Lucy and The Brian Keith Show and continued to gueststar on television including multiple appearances on The Partridge Family The Wild Wild West Hawaii FiveO and McMillan and Wife until his retirement in the mid 1970s Description above from the Wikipedia article Jackie Coogan licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia