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 U.S. 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 G-Men. He guest-starred on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. He appeared, too, as Corbett in two episodes of NBC's The Outlaws with Barton MacLane, which aired from 1960–1962. In the 1960–1961 season, he guest-starred in the episode "The Damaged Dolls" of the syndicated crime drama The Brothers Brannagan. In 1961, he guest-starred 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 1962–63 NBC series, McKeever and the Colonel. He finally found his most famous television role as Uncle Fester in ABC's The Addams Family (1964–1966). 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 Jeannie's uncle, Suleiman – Maharaja of Basenji), Family Affair, Here's Lucy, and The Brian Keith Show, and continued to guest-star on television (including multiple appearances on The Partridge Family, The Wild Wild West, Hawaii Five-O, and McMillan and Wife) until his retirement in the mid 1970s.

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The Kid

8.2

I Dream of Jeannie

7.8

The Addams Family

8.0

The New Scooby-Doo Movies

7.7

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

7.7

The Joker is Wild

8.1

The Andy Griffith Show

7.6

Cahill: United States Marshal

6.1

The Brady Bunch

6.7

Hawaii Five-O

7.1

Perry Mason

7.7

A Day's Pleasure

6.1

Gunsmoke

6.6

Marlowe

6.0

The Wild Wild West

7.6

Ironside

6.8

Showbiz Kids

6.8

The Prey

4.5

The Shakiest Gun in the West

6.2

The Lucy Show

7.0

Emergency!

7.8

The Space Children

4.0

Adam-12

7.1

Halloween with the New Addams Family

6.0

Family Affair

6.6

Mesa of Lost Women

2.4

The Proud Ones

6.4

Sherlock Holmes in New York

5.8

Alias Smith and Jones

6.9

The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made

4.6

Girl Happy

6.6

The Virginian

6.4

Here's Lucy

6.7

The Wonderful World of Disney

7.6

Barnaby Jones

6.9

Nice and Friendly

4.9

McMillan & Wife

7.1

77 Sunset Strip

6.7

The Escape Artist

6.2

Marcus Welby, M.D.

6.5

Human Experiments

4.6

Lonelyhearts

6.1

Peter Gunn

6.5

High School Confidential!

5.7

Seeing Stars

4.9

A Fine Madness

4.9

Police Story

6.9

Love, American Style

6.0

The Actress

6.2

Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood

4.1

Hollywood

8.3

Oliver Twist

6.3

Sex Kittens Go to College

3.4

Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype

5.0

The Big Operator

5.8

Free and Easy

6.1

Character Studies

6.0

Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces

6.5

Burke's Law

6.0

Studio One

4.7

The Beat Generation

5.2

Chaplin Today: 'The Kid'

5.7

Unknown Chaplin

8.0

My Boy

5.9

The Phantom of Hollywood

5.1

Hawaiian Eye

5.2

The Buster Keaton Story

4.9

John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!

3.4

Outlaw Women

4.6

Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law

6.3

The Rag Man

6.5

College Swing

6.8

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre

5.5

Lock-Up

6.2

Tom Sawyer

5.5

The Circus: Premiere

5.4

The Dick Powell Show

5.0

Mr. Lucky

6.4

Matinee Theater

4.6

Letter to Loretta

6.2

Peck's Bad Boy

3.5

When the Girls Take Over

3.2

The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery

5.2

The Outsider

5.2

Shirley Temple's Storybook

5.8

Night of the Quarter Moon

5.3

Movin' On

5.2

General Electric Theater

6.0

Cowboy G-Men

5.3

The Brian Keith Show

5.0

Forbidden Area

7.5

Huckleberry Finn

8.0

No Place to Land

3.0

Varieties on Parade

5.5

Kilroy Was Here

5.0

Circus Days

6.5

The Kids Who Knew Too Much

6.0

The New Andy Griffith Show

7.5

Outlaws

6.2

The Jimmy Stewart Show

6.0

Flying High

4.5

Clown Alley

10.0

Rogue's Gallery

6.0

Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs

1.0

Sky Patrol

4.0

Million Dollar Legs

5.0

Eighteen and Anxious

6.0

Lucy Gets Lucky

1.0

Old Clothes

3.0

Hello, 'Frisco

5.0

Buttons

1.0

Little Robinson Crusoe

6.0

Scooby-Doo Meets The Addams Family

10.0

Cool Million

5.0

Estrellados

0.0

Skinner's Baby

0.0

Johnny Get Your Hair Cut

0.0

Love in September

0.0

Escape from Terror

0.0

When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion

0.0

The Legend of Rudolph Valentino

0.0

Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)

0.0

The Specialists

0.0

French Leave

0.0

Meet Jackie Coogan

0.0

Skipalong Rosenbloom

0.0

A Boy of Flanders

0.0

Home on the Range

0.0

The Bugle Call

0.0

Long Live the King

0.0

Trouble

0.0

Daddy

0.0

Hollywood’s Children

0.0

Jackie Coogan: The First Child Star

0.0

Vacation Playhouse

0.0

McKeever and the Colonel

0.0