Darryl Hickman

Although younger brother Dwayne Hickman (born 1934) is probably the better-remembered sibling today with his cult following as TV's favorite lovestruck teenager Dobie Gillis and a few "Beach Party" films, it is Darryl Hickman who is certainly the more prolific brother in the movies. At one time, he was deemed one of Hollywood's most talented child stars of World War II and post-war film. Hickman was born in Hollywood, California on July 28, 1931, to Milton Hickman, an insurance salesman, and his wife Katherine, a mother-turned-stage mother. Taking dance classes at age 3, Darryl's looks and talent were discovered by his dance school director who eventually had him placed with a child troupe at age 5 (Meglin School for Kiddies). Paramount Studios subsequently took notice and signed him to a contract, making his unbilled film debut as Ronald Colman's son in the classic adventure The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). The child then appeared briefly in a second Colman film, If I Were King (1938). Darryl would grow up within the studio system and on the studio sets. Fellow classmates would include such stars as Jackie Cooper. Appearing in the Bing Crosby musical biopic The Star Maker (1939), Crosby took notice of young Darryl's promise and referred him to his talent agent brother Everett Crosby. Everett was impressed as well, and took Darryl under his wing. Placed in the Paramount films Untamed (1940) and The Way of All Flesh (1940), the boy was eventually featured in his most prominent role, that of young, impoverished Winfield Joad in the classic film The Grapes of Wrath (1940). MGM quickly showed interest and bought out the boy's Paramount contract. A popular loan-out child player, Darryl appeared in a "poverty row" version of one of Jack London's more popular adventure stories Sign of the Wolf (1941); appeared in 12-year-old Shirley Temple's last film for Fox Young People (1940); showed up in Universal's Mob Town (1941) and another Fox film Young America (1942). While at MGM, Darryl found himself working with the studio's top echelon of stars including Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor and Mickey Rooney. Notable in-house roles included that of "Flip" in Men of Boys Town (1941), "Johnny Smith" in Joe Smith, American (1942), "(young) Blackie" in Northwest Rangers (1942); "Jeb" in the Tracy/Hepburn drama Keeper of the Flame (1942), "Etienne" in Assignment in Brittany (1943), and as young "Lionel" in the classic "Americana" film The Human Comedy (1943). Darryl progressed from child to juvenile parts with equal skill. He was featured in the role of WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker as a lad in the biopic Captain Eddie (1945) starring Fred MacMurray and also featuring brother Dwayne; played composer Ira as a teenager in the Gershwin story Rhapsody in Blue (1945); reunited with Shirley Temple in the "Corliss Archer" comedy Kiss and Tell (1945); played the ill-fated brother-in-law of evil Gene Tierney in the drama Leave Her to Heaven (1945); portrayed the younger version of Van Heflin in the film noir The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946); tangled with priest Pat O'Brien as a young troublemaker in the "Boy's Town"-like crime drama Fighting Father Dunne (1948); was upgraded to Shirley Temple's boyfriend in the light comedy A Kiss for Corliss (1949); played a prep school problem along with co-star Dean Stockwell in the comedy The Happy Years (1950) and a disturbed ranch caretaker along with equally disturbed older sister Mercedes McCambridge in the heavy meller Lightning Strikes Twice (1951). Darryl attended the Immaculate Heart Grammar School in Los Angeles as well as the studio schools at Paramount and then MGM. In September of 1951, 20-year-old Darryl, who had grown unhappy and disenchanted with Hollywood and the studio system in its inability to protect child actors, abandoned his career and entered a monastery, the Passionist Seminary, with the intent on becoming a priest. Within a year, however, he left when he realized he was not cut out for a life in the priesthood. Trying to regain his acting momentum proved admirable and challenging. He began on 50's TV with guest shots on such shows as "Sky King," "The Lone Ranger," "Annie Oakley," "Biff Baker, U.S.A., "Perry Mason," "Public Defenders," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Wanted: Dead or Alive," "Gunsmoke," "The Millionaire" and several anthology programs. He also guested on brother Dwayne's popular "Dobie Gillis" TV show. On the film front, he found featured roles in Destination Gobi (1953), Island in the Sky (1953), Prisoner of War (1954), Tea and Sympathy (1956), The Persuader (1957) and The Tingler (1959). By the early 1960s, as film and TV offers began to dry up, Darryl wisely moved behind the scenes. Starting out as a TV writer, he eventually became a program executive. In the '70s he briefly attempted TV producing. In later years he would also become a respected acting coach in the Los Angeles area. Never leaving acting altogether, he made 60's and 70's guest appearances on such shows as "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color," "Dr. Kildare," "Love, American Style," "All in the Family" and "Maude," before finding an "in" with an abundance of '80s animated voice work: Space Stars (1981), Pac-Man (1982), The Biskitts (1983), The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (1985) and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988). One of his last visible appearances was in a 1999 episode of "The Nanny." Darryl married actress Pamela Lincoln, whom he first met on the film set of The Tingler (1959). They had two children, but divorced in 1982. On the date of his death he was married to production assistant Lynda Farmer Hickman.