Amazing Child Actor Performances of the Past 100 Years

Jackie Coogan became the first movie child star in his eponymous role in “The Kid.” In the film, Charlie Chaplin reprised his Tramp character, to raise a street waif played by the 7-year-old Coogan. Later, Coogan would gain television fame as the lovably cranky Uncle Fester in the series “The Addams Family.”

Edmund Moeschke, a non-professional actor, played a boy facing the challenges of post-World War II Germany. Critics and film fans lauded his performance. It would be Moeschke’s only film.

In postwar Italy, a boy (9-year-old Enzo Staiola) and his father try to recover his dad’s stolen bicycle. “Bicycle Thieves,” directed by Vittoria De Sica, is one of the classic neorealism films made by Italian filmmakers after World War II. Staiola had few roles afterward, including an appearance in the 1954 film “The Barefoot Contessa,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner.

John Howard Davies’ film debut at 9 years old was as Oliver Twist in the film of the same name, directed by the renowned David Lean. Davies appeared in three more films and became an accomplished producer and director, whose credits included the comedies “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” “Fawlty Towers,” “Mr. Bean,” and “Blackadder.”

Brigitte Fossey was 6 years old when she played a French girl orphaned during a German air raid who befriends a farm boy played by 12-year-old Georges Poujouly. Fossey left acting to return to school and then resumed her career, with an appearance in Francois Truffaut’s “The Man Who Loved Women.” Poujouly would appear in the well-received suspense film “Diabolique.”