Charles Eaton

Scarcely remembered today, if at all, actor Charles Eaton was born in Washington, DC, in 1910, the youngest scion of a one-time respected family of stage and film actors. He was certainly the most prominent male performer of a clan that was once referred to as "The Seven Little Eatons." His more notable acting sisters were Pearl Eaton (born 1898), Mary Eaton (born 1901) and Doris Eaton (born 1904). His other siblings, Joseph, Evelyn Eaton and Robert Eaton, remained on the periphery of show business, if at all. The prominent members, however, all appeared at some time in "The Ziegfeld Follies." Charles also worked in vaudeville and appeared in the 1921 version of the Follies with sister Mary when he was only 10, actually sharing the bill with comedian W.C. Fields, the notorious child-despising curmudgeon. Charles made his Broadway debut at the ripe old age of 7 in "Mother Carey's Chickens" (1917) with sister Doris. He earned rave notices in the 1928 Broadway play "Skidding," which ran for 472 performances, and originated the Andy Hardy character (called "Dutch" on stage) in "Growing Pains" (1933), which would later serve Mickey Rooney quite well in the sentimental MGM movies of the 1930s and 1940s. Among his other Broadway credits were roles in "The Awakening" (1919), "A Royal Fandango" (1923) with Ethel Barrymore, "Peter Pan" (1924) starring Marilyn Miller and Leslie Banks, "Incubator" (1932), "Tommy" (1933) and "Lady Luck" (1936). Charles appeared in leads and second leads in a few film dramas, the best being The Ghost Talks (1929) opposite Helen Twelvetrees, which was 20th Century-Fox's first talking picture. By the late 1930s, however, his career had sharply declined after a number of mediocre "B" pictures, including Harmony at Home (1930), The Divorce Racket (1932), Enlighten Thy Daughter (1934), Who Goes Next (1938) and his last, Sons of the Sea (1939), which co-starred his "Captain Hook" co-star on stage years back, Leslie Banks. Charles was considered finished and eventually turned to alcohol, as did his sisters Pearl and Mary. Mary died in 1948 of liver problems brought on by her drinking and Pearl was tragically murdered a decade later. Charles later served as a captain in the US Army Air Corps. In 1940 he went into business with his sister Doris, who operated a thriving Arthur Murray Dance Studios franchise in Detroit. The franchise eventually grew to 18 studios. After some years living on his own in Detroit, he moved to a ranch in Oklahoma. He co-wrote an Eaton family memoir entitled "The Days We Danced" with Doris and Joseph in 2003. He died the following year in Norman, Oklahoma, at 94 of old age. At the time of his death, only sister Doris, who at 100+ was left to carry on the family name.