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| Freddie Bartholomew; date uniknown |
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| Freddie Bartholomew |
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| Forecourt Ceremony held on Saturday, April 4, 1936 |
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Born: March 28, 1924, in London, England
Age at the time of the ceremony: 12
Died: January 23, 1992, in Sarasota, Florida, age 67 |
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Freddie Bartholomew and Shirley Temple were the two most famous child-stars of the mid-to-late 1930s. Signed to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio to play the young David Copperfield in 1935, Bartholomew starred in several classic films before serving in World War II. After the war, Bartholomew undertook a career in television production.
Born to a minor civil servant who abandoned the child, young Freddie went to live with his Aunt Cissie in Warminster, where he became a renown reciter by age three (!). Able to recite long Shakesperean passages, Freddie could sing and dance as well. Freddie was immediately placed in British films, where a visiting David O. Selznick chose him to star as the young David Copperfield in the film he was producing for M-G-M in Hollywood (and which played the Chinese in February 1935).
David Copperfield was a great success, so M-G-M shoved Bartholomew into a grueling production schedule, beginning with playing Sergei to Garbo's Anna Karenina (which played the Chinese in October 1935) and Professional Soldier with Victor McLaglen (released in December 1935).
By the time of Bartholomew's Forecourt ceremony in April of 1936 (for which he had learned to handwrite), he had just finished playing the title character in Little Lord Fauntleroy (which play the Chinese just the following week, in April 1936). Bartholomew received top-billing in The Devil is a Sissy over both Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney (released in September 1936) and played a young Tyrone Power in Lloyd's of London (played the Chinese in March 1937).
Around this time, Bartholomew's birth parents surfaced — attempting to claim Freddie's acting monies for these films. It seems that Bartholomew's finances were permanently damaged in fending off these actions.
Bartholomew's signature role came in 1937's Captains Courageous (which played the Chinese in July 1937). This amazing film was the perfect fit for Bartholomew's unique blend of English mannerisms, his great emotional intensity, and his ensemble playing abilities. The entire cast bonded during the shoot, and when it was over, Bartholomew said, "We all cried like a bunch of babies."
With the popularity of Captains, and Bartholomew's legal troubles, Aunt Cissie tried to renegotiate a new contract with M-G-M, but studio head Louis B. Mayer wasn't buying. Out of work for a year, Bartholomew went to 20th Century-Fox to co-star with Warner Baxter in Kidnapped (which played the Chinese in May 1938), Then returned to M-G-M for Lord Jeff with Mickey Rooney (played the Chinese in July 1938), and Listen Darling with Judy Garland (played the Chinese in November 1938).
As Barthomew grew to his eventual six foot height, he bounced around the studios, including starring in a tepid version of Swiss Family Robinson for R-K-O in 1940. Freddie enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1943, and served as an aircraft mechanic but suffered a back injury during a fall, and was discharged in 1944.
Bartholomew drifted through the next few years, but then discovered a taste for producing and directing television programming, serving with station WPIX in New York City from 1949 to 1954. He married and began a family, living in New Jersey, eventually becoming a vice president of television at ad agency Benton & Bowles. Suffering from emphysema, Bartholomew quit the ad game in 1989, moved to Sarasota Florida, and died of heart failure in 1992 at the age of 67.
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| Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Freddie Bartholomew Forecourt block. Executed by Jean Klossner, Saturday, April 4, 1936. 45 x 51 inches. |
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| Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Freddie Bartholomew Forecourt ceremony, Saturday, April 4, 1936. An unknown man assists Freddie Bartholomew in making his footprints with cement artist Jean Klossner. |
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