Background
Megna was born in Queens, New York, as John Ingolia. His father was a pharmacist, and his mother was a one-time nightclub singer.
Megna was born in Queens, New York, as John Ingolia. His father was a pharmacist, and his mother was a one-time nightclub singer.
He attended Holy Cross High School in Flushing, New New York
His best known role is that of "Dill" in the film To Kill A Mockingbird. He was a half-brother of Connie Stevens and an ex-brother-in-law of Eddie Fisher. At age 6, Megna made his acting debut in Frank Loesser"s Broadway musical Greenwillow.
At 7, he reappeared on Broadway in All the Way Home, an adaptation of James Agee"s novel about the effect of a father"s death on his family.
This led to his being cast as Charles Baker "Dill" Harris, the toothy young summer visitor in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. Megna appeared in many television programs throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
He portrayed a near-blind child in the episode "A Horse Has a Big Head - Let Him Worry!" he played a small role as one of the "Onlies" in the "Miri" episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, appeared as Stephan in I Spy(1967), and starred as Little Adam in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-produced animated shorts The Big World of Little Adam. His other film appearances included, The Godfather: Participant II (1974), The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) with John Travolta, and with Burt Lancaster.
He also acted in two car-chase films starring Burt Reynolds and directed by Hal Needham: and
Megna graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, as a performing arts major. As an adult, he turned to stage directing. He was the founding director of Los Angeles Arts, a nonprofit theater group in Los Los Angeles
John Megna died from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome-related complications on September 4, 1995, at Midway Hospital in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 42.