Background
Freddie Bartholomew was born on 28 March 1924 in London, United Kingdom.
Freddie Bartholomew was born on 28 March 1924 in London, United Kingdom.
He played in David Copperfield (34, George Cukor), contriving to coordinate such varied players as W. C. Fields, Elsa Lanchester, Lionel Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, and Edna May Oliver—and capturing producer David O. Selznick’s dream of the perfect child.
Next he was Garbos son in Anna Karenina (35, Clarence Brown), with Victor McLaglen in Professional Soldier (36, Tay Garnett), and Little Lord Fauntleroy (36. John Cromwell). Rooney had a part in that film, and in The Devil Is a Sissy (36, W. S. Van Dyke), Bartholomew was put between Rooney and Jackie Cooper.
He was Tyrone Power as a boy—unnecessary duplication—in Lloyds of London (36, Henry King) and a brat in Captains Courageous (37, Victor Fleming). Various members of his family were fighting in the courts over his earnings as his career declined: Kidnapped (38, Alfred Werker); Lord Jeff (38, Sam Wood); Listen Darling (38, Edwin L. Marin); The Spirit of Culver (39, |oseph Santley); The Swiss Family Robinson (40, Edward Ludwig); Tom Brown’s Schooldays (40, Robert Stevenson); Naval Academy (41); and A Yank at Eton (42, Norman Tau- rog). After Junior Army (43) and The Town Went Wild (44), he joined the American Air Force, and appeared in only two more films—Sepia Cinderella (47, Arthur Leonard) and St. Benny the Dip (51, Edgar G. Ulmer)—before drifting into TV where work on commercials took him to a career in advertising.
Just as Hollywood kept a cricket team of English actors, to add tone or to be mocked, so among child actors Freddie was the little gent, wickedly exposed by Mickey Rooney.