Dickie Moore (actor)


John Richard Moore Jr. was an American actor who was one of the last survivors of the silent film era. A busy and popular actor during his childhood and youth, he appeared in over 100 films until the early 1950s. Among his most notable appearances were the Our Gang series and films such as Oliver Twist, Blonde Venus, Sergeant York, Out of the Past, and Eight Iron Men.

Career

John Richard Moore Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Nora Eileen and John Richard Moore, a banker. His mother was Irish, and his paternal grandparents were from England and Ireland, respectively.
He made his film debut in 1927 in the silent film The Beloved Rogue, where he portrayed silent film star John Barrymore's character as a one-year-old baby. He soon gained notable supporting roles. He appeared as Marlene Dietrich's son in Josef von Sternberg's drama Blonde Venus. He also appeared with Barbara Stanwyck in So Big, with Walter Huston in Gabriel Over the White House and with Spencer Tracy in Man's Castle.
In the 1932–33 season Moore appeared in eight films of the Our Gang series, as the leader of the gang. He left the series after one year to play in more feature films. He is perhaps most remembered for his portrayal of the title character in the 1933 adaptation of Oliver Twist.
In 1935, he played Joseph Meister in The Story of Louis Pasteur. In 1941, he portrayed the brother of Gary Cooper in the war drama Sergeant York under the direction of Howard Hawks. He is also famous for giving Shirley Temple her first romantic onscreen kiss, in the film Miss Annie Rooney.
Moore served in the United States Army during World War II. Later, he was less successful as a teenage actor and young adult and he often had to play in B-movies such as Dangerous Years. One of his last notable film roles was in Out of the Past, in which he portrayed Robert Mitchum's deaf young assistant, "The Kid". His last role was a young soldier in Eight Iron Men.
He later performed on Broadway, in stock and on television. He went on to teach and write books about acting, publish Equity News for Actors' Equity Association, and produce industrial films and a short film The Boy and the Eagle, which was nominated for an Oscar. He retired from acting in the late 1950s.

Personal life

Moore was married three times. His first marriage was to Pat Dempsey from 1948 to 1954. The couple had one child, Kevin Moore. In 1959 he married Eleanor Donhowe Fitzpatrick; they divorced in 1978. His third and final marriage was in 1988 to Jane Powell, to whom he remained married until his death in 2015. The two met when Moore interviewed Powell for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, which he had just published. The couple lived in Manhattan and Wilton, Connecticut.

Later life

In 1984, Moore published Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star , a book about his and others' experiences as child actors. In 1966, after battling addiction to alcohol and drugs, he founded a public relations firm, Dick Moore and Associates, which he ran until 2010.
In March 2013, Moore's wife reported that he had arthritis and "bouts of dementia". He died at a hospice in Wilton, Connecticut, on September 7, 2015, five days before his 90th birthday. He was cremated.

Filmography