Best Child Actor Ever

Alfred Lutter, duh

Not Tatum O'Neal. Eww.

NONE of these.

i would vote for Victoire Thivisol, who played the title role in "Ponette."

Billy Mumy

Pamelyn Ferdin

Henry Thomas in E.T.

Quinn Cummings

Also, the kid from Big Little Lies. He was incredible.

R3 But she wasn’t that great in Chocolat.

What about Bonnie Blue from GWTW? What about Cousin Oliver from Brady Brunch? What about Pia Zadora in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians?

What about the Culkins? What about Jacob Tremblay?

Kim Fields

Haley Joel Eisenberg

Kim Richards

I was gonna ask about Elizabeth Taylor, who is obviously the greatest, but then I started thinking about Linda Blair ramming a crucifix into her va-jayjay and being raped by a broom handle in a TV movie so I voted for her.

^she was also convincing as a teen alkie. And later convincing on roller skates.

Baby Vance

I recently rewatched "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" (a movie that could NEVER be made today) and Jodie Foster turned in a completely formed adult performance and matched Alexis Smith line for line. Scott Jacoby, never a great actor, really suffered in comparison to Jodie.

Ana Torrent

Bobs Watson - The Story of Alexander Graham Bell 53:00-56:05

Honorable mention: Danny Lloyd: The Shining Henry Thomas: Raggedy Man & ET Tyler Hoechlin: The Road to Perdition

there's only one true choice

Dean Stockwell

Christian Bale

Elijah Wood

Kristen Stewart

Ricky Schroeder

Where the fuck is Nicholas Hoult? He's such a rare gem among boy actors.

Freddie Bartholomew

Christian Bale, Empire of the Sun

R25 Because he was only good when he was little?

Asa Butterfield?

R25, oh, please. Now that we know you don't have any streaming subscriptions.

Jodie shits all over all others.

The little girl in "Annette" was amazing. Stole the movie.

The Fanning horrors are by far the worst.

Natalie Portman in Leon The Professional. She was funny, believable and not irritating.

The children in Moonlight and The Florida Project were natural and believable. Most child actors make me want to vomit.

Hands down, Sydney Lucas in her performance of Fun Home, this song portrays the impressive range that she has, but she sustained this level throughout the whole show. She was breathtaking to watch and listen too and she did it all effortlessly.

Any one of these are better than the ones listed:

Matthew Stymie Beard

Virginia Weidler

Spanky McFarland

Alfalfa Schweitzer

Mickey Rooney

Judy Garland

Natalie Wood - Miracle on 34th Street. Her performance propelled the entire story.

Jodie Foster is great.

But a poll that does not include the inimitable Hayley Mills and Patty Duke is meaningless. Personal favorite, more of a teen actor, Elinor Donahue.

Kirsten Dunst

Mickey Rooney

Hayley Mills

To name three who should be on the list.

And Roddy Macdowell, whose beautiful young performances on films like How Green Was My Valley are often forgotten.

How can you even call this a list without Buck Mother Fucking Wheat?

Billie Thomas, AKA Buckwheat!

"Best Child Actor Ever"

The ones who say, "Yes", to a pool party invitation.

Ronnie Howard best

Larry Matthews worst

Thora Birch. She was the little girl in Patriot Games and the skeptical girl in the Miracle on 34th Street remake. She was in a film with Elijah Wood called "Paradise." Great little film.

r45 Mara Wilson was in Miracle on 34th Street. Thora Birch was in a non-classic called All I want for Christmas.

Though as far as I know she only ever made one film as a child Mary Badham in To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the greats.

Drew Barrymore.

Lindsey Lohan

The Bitch played twins when she was only 11!

^^^^^ Lindsay Lohan

Single performance, Patty McCormack in 'The Bad Seed"

Virginia Weidler. Mara Wilson.

Mara Wilson was the best part of the remake but the movie itself was poor.

I'm thinking Jodie Foster, but I'm also glad someone mentioned Elijah Wood and Patty Duke.

Jacob Tremblay is very good.

The Claude kid with the deer and Gregory Peck.

Hunter Carson, Karen Black's son was really good in Paris, Texas. It was his first role. He wasn't in anything significant afterwards

Kristy McNichol. She could convey six different emotions before uttering a single line.

Patty McCormack and Patty Duke gave complex, powerhouse performances in the movies for which each was nominated for the Oscar, with Duke winning in 1963. They each also had pretty good careers as adult actors, and each could jump between comedy and drama. Jodie Foster was a good actor as a child, but she comes across as cold and humorless as an adult actor.

JUDY FUCKING GARLAND, OP. GFY.

R3, it’s a fucking amazing performance. Genuinely staggering.

Jodie was incredible in Taxi Driver

Kirsten Dunst was great in Interview With the Vampire and Little Women

Judy.

History.

Abigail Breslin

Glad to see Jodie is leading the poll. Her run of performances in the 70s will probably never be equalled. And I think her performance in Taxi Driver is the best juvenile performance committed to film.

Anna Pauquin in The Piano

Claude Jarman, Jr from The Yearling was a good child actor

People toss around 'child star' way too loosely. Shirley Temple wasn’t just a child star, she was a full-blown industry. Between the ages of 3 and 10, she made 29 films. Not YouTube shorts, not commercials, actual feature-length Hollywood movies. That kind of output from a kid is unheard of.

And she wasn’t just working, she was 'carrying' the studio. Adjusted for inflation, her films pulled in around 3 BILLION dollars. Billion. With a B. During the Depression. She kept Fox Studios alive when no one else could.

No other kid before or since has done that. Not even close. And for the record, I’m not even a Shirley Temple fan. Not my thing. But facts are facts.

Yeah, what R59 said!

Literally, Helen Keller could tell you the answer to this question, OP.

r69, Shirley Temple's box office success that little to do with whether she was a good child actor or not.

For example, Barbara Cartland sold 500 million books, but that does not make her one of the greatest novelists of all time.

6.1 percent you motherfuckers? At least more of you voted for me than my sister. I think it's rather hilarious that Miss Flabigail Breslin did not make OP's list. Thank fucking Christ for that.

And your mother sucks donkey dicks in hell, R33.

Welp, I’ve gone full Shirley spiral rabbit hole, curls, dimples, and all:

People forget just how freakishly talented Shirley Temple was. This wasn’t just a cute kid smiling on cue, she was singing on pitch, tap dancing in complex routines, and acting circles around adults. It was reported she picked up Bill Robinson’s choreography just by LISTENING to his FEET.

Shirley Temple wasn't much of a child actress. She just mugged a lot for the camera.

But she was a GREAT child dancer. That and being exceptionally adorable were her genuine talents.

Here she is dancing with Buddy Ebsen in "Captain January." (I will also give that she can stay more or less on pitch while he cannot.)

Chiming in for Dean Stockwell.

Loved Connie Marshall, too. Her performance as a physically abused child in Daisy Kenyon was outstanding.

And let's not forget Billy Gray.

Judy Garland.

Elizabeth Taylor.

Roddy McDowall.

Margaret O'Brien was pretty great (Orson Welles thought so).

Peggy Ann Garner.

Claude Jarman, Jr.

Ivan Jandl (the kid in The Search, w/ Montgomery Clift.) Won a special Oscar.

Dean Stockwell.

That kid in A Thousand Clowns was so good, too.

Barry Gordon (had to look him up).

Brandon deWilde, especially in SHANE, was an outstanding really young actor.

Brooke Shields

Regina King

Jackie Cooper

Roddy McDowall

Baby Peggy

Ethan Cutkosky

Malcolm-Jamal Warner

All the "Little Rascals" (including Petey)

Connie Marshall was weird and zombie-like but effective.

Melissa Gilbert wasn't bad.

The old-movie child actors seemed better, though.

René Poyen.

Natalie Wood.

Jean-Pierre Léaud, in The 400 Blows.

Brilliant.

C. Thomas Howell in The Outsiders.

Martin Stephens in The Innocents 1961 and Village of the Damned 1960

I can't believe Margaret O'Brien has received so little attention for where performance as hypochondriac, chronic liar and general psycho in Meet Me In St. Louis. Granted, she was hammy as hell but her scenes with Judy Garland were quite good.

By the time she was in Little Women, her cute affectation had become tiresome. She made Beth even more insufferable than she already was. I can see why she never became an adult actor. But Tootie is still a great performance.

Only one brief mention of Peggy Ann Garner, by far the best child actor of the classic period?

She was a plain, blond little girl, with a direct, open way with a line and an expressive face that showed every emotion. Great in her brief role in “Jane Eyre,” her finest hour is probably “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” She’s fun as the adolescent girl at the center of “Junior Miss,” but to see her as an adult actor is to see a conventionally down-to-earth character not-very-pretty actress who along the way had lost the freshness of her early work. She’s terrible and looks ghastly in the Technicolor film noir murder mystery “Black Widow.”

When studying acting as an adult, she got the idea her early work and technique was bad and that she wasn’t a ‘real’ actress. Her first husband actor Albert Salmi was a major underminer. And she died young. It’s a pity.

Macaulay Culkin. Box office receipts, anyone?

Recently I watched "Carnage," a purposely stage-y version of the stage play. Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz and Jodie Foster were the stars. All were terrific, but, yes, Jodie stole the thing. She's always been a character actor who gets leading lady parts.

Margaret O'Brien was very good in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes. She was also good as June Allyson's little sister in Music For Millions. Considering she could have been very annoying with that voice of hers, she wasn't.

Jane Powell was pretty good, too, though she was better as an adult.

Fuck Jacob Tremblay!

Sparky McFarland was such a natural when he was a little guy. He grew out of his naturalness as he aged up, but he was such a personality!

Same for Matthew “Stymie” Beard. Dickie Moore, Beard’s “Our Gang” costar and best friend, was also an actor of some depth at a young age.

All of them are in the short I attached.

R94. I accept that challenge!

Did Jodie Foster give many great performances as a child? She was a teen by the time Taxi Driver came out. She was great in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane.

Anything else pre-teenage years?

Jodie as Joey

Financial notes on some child actors, post-Coogan Act:

Although taxes were paid on Hayley Mills' earnings from 1959-1966 the British equivalent of the I.R.S. took over 90% of this income. She fought them for seven years to no avail.

When Shirley Temple retired in the late 1940s, she found that her father had squandered her income and she was left with very little.

Johnny Whitaker (Family Affair) income enhanced his family's lifestyle. I think he was left with nothing.

David Henesy as "David Collins" in Dark Shadows (1966-70)

277 episodes of scripts that he had to perform live-to-tape.

What about Kristen Dunst? She matched Tom Cruise & Brad Pitt (no big lift I know, but still) note for note in Interview With A Vampire

Patty Duke in 'The Miracle Worker"

And can we acknowledge that David Henesy has his lines down as compared to, say Joan Bennett or Jonathan Frid?

The correct answer is Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. Next: Jackie Cooper in The Champ

Scott Jacoby won an Emmy as a kid in the groundbreaking TV movie That Certain Summer.

He was also great in The Little Girl who Lives Down the Lane.

Rodney Allen Rippy

Mason Reese

Hayley Mills

Pamela Franklin

Noah Jupe was really good in Wonder and A Quiet Place

WHAT? This is DL and we do not even nominate the star of the most watched movie in the WORLD? For God sakes, Judy Garland owns this thread. Period!

Jane Withers, I would also like to mention that I sold a caftan to Margaret O'Brien.

Brad Renfro.

Even the Bryan Singer trolls seem to have forgotten him.

Dickie Moore eventually married Jane Powell when they were older.

Billy Chapin. The kid in The Night of the Hunter. Brother of Father Knows Best's Lauren Chapin.

George "Foghorn" Winslow

Baby Leroy

Baby Peggy

Jodie was 12 when Taxi Driver was shot.

I don't know if he was the best child actor ever but I've never forgotten Enzo Staiola who, at the age of 8, played the role of the son in Vittorio de Sicca 1948 film, BICYCLES THIEVES. The last scene where he holds his (humiliated) father's hand still brings tears to my eyes every time. I just watched it and I am crying. Beautiful raw performances by both actors rarely, if ever, seen in a Hollywood movie.

R69 not to mention, Shirley Temple (b. 1928) was the #1 movie star for 4 straight years -- 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938.

In 1934 she was #8, and in 1939 she was #5.

Oops, forgot to post the link:

I like that baby who was always playing with sharp knives in the Icicle Thief.

The kid in Summertime with Katharine Hepburn was good.

Just saw this on MSN right now. Published 11 hrs ago. Kristy McNichol. 62. "Nearly unrecognizable." They say. I think I'd recognize her.

Of course there was Bobby (Robert) Blake. He was actually a very good child actor (in Treasure of the Sierra Madre and a lot of other movies of the time.)

Baby Rose Marie

That documentary about her (and with her), Wait for Your Laugh, is really great. (Rose Marie.)

Jackie Coogan in "The Kid." More than held his old vs Chaplin.

Here he is in a Criterion interview from later in life, reflecting on the film.

Manuel Padilla

No love for Mara Hobel? You little homosexual boys are slipping.

Why can't posters just nominate someone they like rather than tediously complain that other people haven't nominated that person before ("you bitches are slipping")?

[quote]Patty McCormack and Patty Duke gave complex, powerhouse performances in the movies for which each was nominated for the Oscar, with Duke winning in 1963. They each also had pretty good careers as adult actors, and each could jump between comedy and drama.

Incidentally, Patty McCormack was the first to play Helen Keller in William Gibson's THE MIRACLE WORKER when it premiered on television in 1957 on the CBS anthology drama series PLAYHOUSE 90.

Teresa Wright co-starred as Anne Sullivan.

The program was so well-received, they decided to bring it to Broadway in 1959.

Both Wright and McCormack were unavailable, so Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke were cast instead.

And the rest is history.

Casted

Mickey Rooney

Freddie Bartholomew

Coogan also gets extra credit (in my book) for growing up to 1) sue his parents for mismanaging his childhood earnings in the landmark case that became the California Child Actor's Bill (i.e. "The Coogan Law") and 2) become the very first Uncle Fester on TV's "Addams Family."

Jackie Cooper

Jackie Coogan said playing Uncle Fester was his favorite role.

If you want to read a good book about the child stars of yore, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (But Don’t Have Sex or Take the Car) by Dickie Moore is wonderful. He became a journalist later in life and wrote this book in the early 80s. He was the last person to interview Natalie Wood.

Jackie Coogan's first wife was Betty Grable, who was the biggest female film star during the WW2 era.

One of the greatest performances by a child (although it became understood it wasn't so much of a performance as a real life depiction) was Fernando Ramos Da Silva in Babenco's "Pixote". Canby said he had one of the most expressive faces ever on screen. Even though the movie was not shot chronologically, his sweet innocent face grows harder, angrier as the movie progresses.

Scorsese on Pixote and Ramos Da Silva.

[quote]Baby Rose Marie

My 102 year old mother has an autographed photo of Baby Rose Marie. Kept it all these years.

R138 another great one is Hollywood’s Children by Diana Serra Carey aka Baby Peggy.

Enzo Staiola is also the first I think of when this question comes up—and not just for the final scenes—so I was sad to read he died at the beginning of last month.

It pains me to say it, but Jackie Coogan's star turn in "The Kid" wasn't the only memorable, if darkly auspicious, performance by a child actor in that film.

Lita Grey appears as the "Flirting Angel" who woos Chaplin during the Dreamland sequence ("Sin creeps in." "Vamp Him!"). Twelve years old at the time (in 1921), she became physically involved with him 3 years later, and he married her the following year (when she was 16 and he was 35). It's really uncomfortable to see the clip in this day and age, because she plainly looks like a kid.

A very hazardous profession with no protection for kids, and total immunity for those with star power and studio pull (as Chaplin had in spades at that time).

...Also, can't believe we've made to 146 replies in this thread, and DL hasn't yet mentioned the performance by Huckleberry Fox in "Terms of Endearment."

Jodie has been great since the start. I wish she'd make another film, she deserves another Oscar as much as Katherine Heipburn.

Was bored, threw the show on just to have something in the background while I cleaned up. Next thing I know, I'm glued to the screen, totally transfixed. Watching on HBO, though I think it's airing elsewhere too.

Only thing I can't wrap my head around: how the hell were people holding up their phones filming all that chaos? I'd have dropped mine in pure terror.

^^Oops wrong thread^^

Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Road

I picked Jodie Foster, but imo I think it's Christian Bale. As someone posted above watch him in Empire of the Sun.

There’s also Owen Cooper, the kid in Netflix’s “Adolescence.” He is amazing and could win an Emmy this season.

Another for Henry Thomas in E.T.

Owen Cooper, I have a feeling he's going to win the Emmy.

R90: Stymie!! As a lover of artichokes (from the time I was a little kid), the line from Little Rascals that has stuck with me for 50+ years: "It may have choked Artie, but it ain't goin' choke Stymie!"

Oops, meant to type R95 above.....

Reply 20 (re: Alexander Graham Bell movie), in the 40s, when you made a call, one would say. "I gotta make a quick Ameche."

Speaking of the Alexander Graham Bell movie, child actor Bobs Watson has a memorable part in the film playing a deaf boy. Bell taught communication techniques to the deaf, and in a touching scene, the boy is able to communicate with his father (Gene Lockhart) thanks to Bell.

Bobs was also the kid in Boys Town.

....

R124 You’re right. She basically looks exactly the same. She doesn’t look 62 for sure.

Tragic Bobby Driscoll was extremely effective as a little kid. His Disney characters, especially his role in "Treasure Island" shone.

Jane Withers--she was able to terrorize other child actresses

Jackie Cooper--he actually had a decent career as an adult and became a director and a studio exec

Darryl Hickman--not a great actor but a versatile and durable juvenile

Mickey Rooney--probably insufferable even as a kid, but delivered good performances then; better to forget his later desperation

Virginia Weidler--if only for "The Philadelphia Story"

Billy Mumy had sense enough to stop. I think his parents managed his money well.

I love you, OP, for leaving the fat girl off your list even though she had an Oscar nomination.

Jodie is by far the best.

But I'd also vote for Kristy McNichol, who had a wonderful, natural quality.

Why is it that the second someone mentions 'Kristy McNichol' I just assume they’ve got a flannel collection and drive a Subaru?

I don't know, maybe you should get that looked at.