sophy1996
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In honor of the Oscars, today we feature two child stars who took home the Academy Juvenile Award for their work on Disney films. The Academy Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, was a special non-competitive award presented intermittently between 1935 and 1961. There were only 12 winners before the award was retired (including Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney). The statuette is about half the size of a regular Oscar.
Bobby Driscoll (1937-1968) was one of the first two actors Disney put under contract. He received his Juvenile Oscar in 1950 for outstanding work in 1949, the year he starred in So Dear to My Heart for Disney and The Window for RKO. Driscoll also starred in Song of the South (1946) and Treasure Island (1950), and served as model and voice for Peter Pan (1953). He struggled with his career after leaving Disney, and he began to use drugs by age 17. After serving time for drugs, he relocated to New York and became part of Andy Warhol's art community known as The Factory. He died young, at age 31, of heart failure connected to drug abuse.
Hayley Mills (born 1946) comes from a prominent acting family (father Sir John Mills was also an Oscar winner and a Disney Legend; mother Mary Hayley Bell was a stage actor and writer; and older sister Juliet Mills is a film and television actor). Mills became one of the most popular child actors in the world and won her Juvenile Oscar (the last one awarded) after she starred in Pollyanna (1960). Annette Funicello accepted it for her because her she was at boarding school in England, and in view of her young age, her parents didn't tell her anything about the award until it arrived on her doorstep. It was years before she appreciated what being an Oscar winner meant! Mills went on to appear in five more Disney films in the early to mid-1960s: The Parent Trap (1961) (in which she sang "Let's Get Together" with herself), In Search of the Castaways (1962), Summer Magic (1963), The Moon-Spinners (1964), and That Darn Cat! (1965). Mills continued acting as she grew into adulthood, and in fact can be seen right now in an Off-Broadway show called Party Face. She was inducted as a Disney Legend in the class of 1998.
Bobby Driscoll (1937-1968) was one of the first two actors Disney put under contract. He received his Juvenile Oscar in 1950 for outstanding work in 1949, the year he starred in So Dear to My Heart for Disney and The Window for RKO. Driscoll also starred in Song of the South (1946) and Treasure Island (1950), and served as model and voice for Peter Pan (1953). He struggled with his career after leaving Disney, and he began to use drugs by age 17. After serving time for drugs, he relocated to New York and became part of Andy Warhol's art community known as The Factory. He died young, at age 31, of heart failure connected to drug abuse.
Hayley Mills (born 1946) comes from a prominent acting family (father Sir John Mills was also an Oscar winner and a Disney Legend; mother Mary Hayley Bell was a stage actor and writer; and older sister Juliet Mills is a film and television actor). Mills became one of the most popular child actors in the world and won her Juvenile Oscar (the last one awarded) after she starred in Pollyanna (1960). Annette Funicello accepted it for her because her she was at boarding school in England, and in view of her young age, her parents didn't tell her anything about the award until it arrived on her doorstep. It was years before she appreciated what being an Oscar winner meant! Mills went on to appear in five more Disney films in the early to mid-1960s: The Parent Trap (1961) (in which she sang "Let's Get Together" with herself), In Search of the Castaways (1962), Summer Magic (1963), The Moon-Spinners (1964), and That Darn Cat! (1965). Mills continued acting as she grew into adulthood, and in fact can be seen right now in an Off-Broadway show called Party Face. She was inducted as a Disney Legend in the class of 1998.
