Darryl Hickman

Darryl Gerard Hickman (born July 28, 1931) is an American film and television actor, voice artist, screenwriter, television executive, and acting coach. He is the older brother of actor Dwayne Hickman. He started his career as a child actor in films and as an adult has appeared in numerous TV series.

Darryl Hickman
Darryl Hickman in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Born	Darryl Gerard Hickman July 28, 1931 Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor television executive screenwriter acting coach
Years active	1934 – 1999
Spouse(s)	Pamela Lincoln ​ ​ (m. 1959; div. 1982)​ Lynda Farmer Hickman (m. 19??)
Children	2
Relatives	Dwayne Hickman (younger brother, born 1934)

Child actor in the 1930s and 1940s

Hickman was born in Hollywood, California, to Milton and Katherine Hickman. His father sold insurance and his mother was a housewife. In the mid-1930s, Darryl was discovered by a dance school director and subsequently became a student there. The following year, the famed Hollywood studio Paramount signed a contract with the child actor. His first film role was as Ronald Colman's son in The Prisoner of Zenda in 1937.[1] He attended Paramount's school in California and had classmates like Gene Nelson and Jackie Cooper.[2]

Hickman in Joe Smith, American (1942)

In preparation for the 1939 Bing Crosby movie The Star Maker, Paramount casting agents, led by Leroy Prinz, interviewed more than a thousand children. Hickman won one of the parts in the film. Pleased with Hickman's performance, Crosby notified his older brother and talent agent Everett Crosby of the young actor.[3][4] After this, he went on to appear in multiple motion pictures throughout the 1930s and 1940s in a wide array of genres. A busy performer, he would sometimes work at different films simultaneously.[5]

In 1939, he was cast in 20th Century Fox's film adaption of John Steinbeck's best-selling novel from 1939 The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford. He portrayed the role of "Winfield Joad", the youngest member of a family trying to cope with the hardships of the Great Depression.[6] The film was a critical and commercial success, with Ford winning an Academy Award for Best Director, while actress Jane Darwell won for Best Supporting Actress.[7][8] In 1941, Hickman played a reform school juvenile delinquent in Men of Boys Town, "almost running away [with his role] right under [co-star] Mickey Rooney's nose", said one review.[9] Another notable role during this time included the war-time melodrama The Human Comedy, where he played a mentally slow child. Hickman made a featured appearance as well as "Frank" in the 1942 Our Gang comedy short Going to Press.[10] In 1944, he again played the bad boy antagonist, cast opposite Jimmy Lydon's goody two-shoes character in the film Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout.[9]

In 1946, he played the younger version of Van Heflin's character 'Sam Masterson' in the film noir The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. In order to make it seem credible that Hickman looked like a young Van Heflin, the latter provided a picture of himself as a teenager to the makeup artist Wally Westmore.[11] In this period he also acted alongside Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde in the 1945 film Leave Her to Heaven. Being the sole survivor among the cast, he provided extra commentary in the DVD release of the movie. His experience of working with Tierney was mixed, considering her to have been aloof and not given her best performance. It won Tierney an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.[12] The year after the release of Leave Her to Heaven, Hickman was lauded by a newspaper as "one of Hollywood's top juveniles".[13] Hickman later became critical of child acting, lamenting how the profession for young actors deprives them of a real childhood. He opted to get therapeutical assistance for several years in order to come to terms with his past.[14][15]

Hickman with Susan Peters in Song of Russia (1944)

Adult years as an actor

Hickman graduated from Cathedral High School in Los Angeles in 1948 (his brother Dwayne graduated from the same school in 1952).[16] Finding it hard to adjust to adulthood after being in the limelight for most of his childhood, he retired from show business to enter a monastery in 1951 as a passionist monk. He returned to Hollywood around one month later.[17][18] He continued acting, but with fewer roles than he had at the peak of his career. One of his most notable roles during this time was as Al in the 1956 film Tea and Sympathy. He also began acting for the first time in the then-new entertainment medium of television. The switch did not always turn out successfully, for many shows were cancelled for various reasons in the early years of television.[19] Hickman's ongoing efforts to reinvigorate his acting career were interrupted for two years while he served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956.[20]

In 1959 and 1960, Hickman appeared on younger brother Dwayne Hickman's CBS sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, playing his older brother Davey in three different episodes: "The Right Triangle" (1959), "Deck the Halls" (1959), and "Where There's a Will" (1960).[21] In 1961, Hickman starred in a short-lived TV series The Americans. Also in 1961 he played murderer Steve Harris in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece.". He appeared in two episodes of The Untouchables, "You Can't Pick the Number" and "Pressure." Aside from film and television, Hickman also starred in Broadway productions, such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning play How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1963, substituting for star Robert Morse.[19] In 1976, after a 17-year hiatus from movies, Hickman had a minor role as "Bill Herron" in the film Network.[22][23]

Television executive and acting coach

Hickman eventually became a television executive, producer, and occasional screenwriter, mainly working in New York City.[15] He wrote the scripts for several 1961 episodes of The Loretta Young Show.[24] In the early 1970s, Hickman was associate producer of the long-running soap opera Love of Life.[15] He was also one of the producers of A Year at the Top with Norman Lear in 1977. During the production of the pilot episode for A Year at the Top, he reunited with guest-star Mickey Rooney with whom he had acted in the Boys Town sequel Men of Boys Town in 1941.[25]

Hickman's book about acting techniques The Unconscious Actor: Out of Control, In Full Command was published in April 2007.[26] In it he explains how his approach to acting evolved through his interactions with the various actors and directors he worked with over the years. Among his most important influences came from working with Spencer Tracy and George Cukor in the 1942 movie Keeper of the Flame. In another book written by James Curtis and published in 2011, Spencer Tracy: A Biography, Hickman's admiration for Tracy and Cukor is again documented. He praises the two men's patience in that biography, as well as their ability to give due attention to inexperienced actors such as himself.[27] Earlier, in a 2002 interview, Hickman stated that the current generation of young Hollywood actors were talented but lacked the proper coaching and ambition.[28]

Personal life

Hickman married actress Pamela Lincoln, with whom he had acted in the movie The Tingler, on November 28, 1959.[29][30] The couple, who had two sons, divorced in 1982. Their younger son, Justin, committed suicide at the age of 19 in 1985.[17]

Selected filmography

Features

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937	The Prisoner of Zenda	Bit role	Uncredited
1938	If I Were King	Child	Uncredited
1939	The Star Maker	Boots
1940	Emergency Squad	Bob	Uncredited
	The Grapes of Wrath	Winfield Joad
	The Farmer's Daughter	Billy Bingham	Uncredited
	The Way of All Flesh	Victor as a boy
	Prairie Law	Homesteader's Son	Uncredited
	Untamed	Mickey Moriarty
	Mystery Sea Raider	Benny	Uncredited
	Young People	Tommy
1941	Sign of the Wolf	Billy Freeman
	Men of Boys Town	Flip
	Mob Town	Butch Malone aka Shrimp
	Glamour Boy	Billy Doran
1942	Young America	David Engstrom
	Joe Smith, American	Johnny Smith
	Jackass Mail	Tommy Gargan
	Northwest Rangers	'Blackie' as a Boy
1943	Keeper of the Flame	Jeb Rickards
	The Human Comedy	Lionel
	Assignment in Brittany	Etienne
1944	Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout	Peter Kent
	Song of Russia	Peter Bulganov
	And Now Tomorrow	Joe	Uncredited
	Meet Me in St. Louis	Johnny Tevis	Uncredited
1945	Salty O'Rourke	Sneezer
	Captain Eddie	Eddie Rickenbacker as a Boy
	Rhapsody in Blue	Ira Gershwin as a boy
	Kiss and Tell	Raymond Pringle
	Leave Her to Heaven	Danny Harland
1946	Two Years Before the Mast	Sam Hooper
	The Strange Love of Martha Ivers	Young Sam Masterson
	Boys' Ranch	Hank
1947	The Devil on Wheels	Micky Clark
	Black Gold	Schoolboy
	Dangerous Years	Leo Emerson
1948	The Sainted Sisters	Jud Tewilliger
	Fighting Father Dunne	Matt Davis
	Big Town Scandal	Skinny Peters
1949	Alias Nick Beal	Larry Price
	The Set-Up	Shanley
	Any Number Can Play	Paul Enley Kyng
	A Kiss for CorTelevisionliss	Dexter Franklin
1950	The Happy Years	'Tough' McCarty
1951	Lightning Strikes Twice	String
	Criminal Lawyer	Bill Webber	Uncredited
	Submarine Command	Jack Wheelwright
1953	Destination Gobi	Wilbur "Coney" Cohen
	Island in the Sky	Swanson
	Sea of Lost Ships	Senior Cadet Pete Bennett
1954	Southwest Passage	Jeb
	Prisoner of War	Merton Tollivar
	Ricochet Romance	Dave King
1955	Many Rivers to Cross	Miles Henderson	Uncredited
1956	Tea and Sympathy	Al
1957	The Iron Sheriff	Benjamin "Benjie" Galt
	The Persuader	Toby Bonham
1959	The Tingler	David Morris
	Time Element	Ensign Janoski	TV Series
1976	Network	Bill Herron
1981	Looker	Dr. Jim Belfield
	Sharky's Machine	Smiley
1982	The Tragedy of King Lear	Earl of Kent
1986	GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords	Marbles / Hornet	Voice

Short films

• Coffins on Wheels (1941) – Billy Phillips
• Heart Burn (1942) – Nephew
• Going to Press (1942) – Frank
• Boogie Woogie (1945) – Junior Stumplefinger

References

1. "Darryl Hickman Right In His Element In Kiss For Corliss". Annapolis Capital. January 30, 1950. p. 10. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
2. "The Hollywood Round-Up". Amarillo Globe-News. September 12, 1939. p. 13. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
3. "Darryl Hickman finds brother is now his boss". The Mercury. August 5, 1977. p. 24. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
4. Neville, Lucie (June 25, 1939). "Pooh for Shirley! They're in the Movies Now!". San Bernardino County Sun. p. 32. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
5. "Civil War Theme-'The Americans' Eagerly Watched By Americans". Wilson Daily Times. May 2, 1961. p. 13. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
6. Nugent, Frank (January 25, 1940). "Twentieth Century-Fox Shows a Flawless Film Edition of John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath". The New York Times. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
7. "The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners". Oscars. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
8. King, Susan (January 11, 2001). "'Grapes' Memories". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
9. "Theaters". Mansfield News Journal. Mansfield, Ohio. April 13, 1944 – via Newspapers.com.
10. Going to Press, Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Retrieved April 20, 2017.
11. "Photographers Serve As Makeup Models". Brownsville Herald. February 10, 1946. p. 28. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
12. Henderson, Eric (May 28, 2013). "Leave Her to Heaven". Slant Magazine. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
13. "'Devil On Wheels' Is Lesson Film". Camden News. June 28, 1947. p. 2. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
14. Sifford, Darrell (October 29, 1984). "Former child star learns to cope". Boca Raton News. p. 6. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
15. Dunn, Bill (May 29, 1971). "Actor Now Producing And Writing". The Tribune (Seymour). p. 18. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
16. Wakelee-Lynch, Joseph (November 17, 2011). "The Careers of Dwayne Hickman '56". Loyola Marymount University. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
17. "Overview for Darryl Hickman". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
18. Graves, Jim (July 27, 2017). "The Hollywood Round-Up". Catholic World Report. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
19. "Darryl Hickman He Has TV Scars". Doylestown Intelligencer. December 21, 1963. p. 21. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
20. "Darryl Hickman". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
21. "Darryl Hickman". IMDb. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
22. Crosby, Joan (September 29, 1977). "Ex-child actor busy in adult behind-camera work". El Paso Herald-Post. p. 44. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
23. Monaco, James (1992). Network. Perigee Trade. p. 617. ISBN 9780399517808.
24. Witbeck, Charles (July 2, 1961). "Darryl Hickman's Growing Up". Chicago Tribune. p. 8. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
25. "'A Day at the Top', Norman Lear's Latest". Findlay Courier. January 5, 1977. p. 13. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
26. Hickman, Darryl (2007). The Unconscious Actor: Out of Control, In Full Command. Small Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0977680924.
27. Curtis, James (2011). Spencer Tracy: A Biography. Knopf. ISBN 978-0307262899.
28. Koseluk, Chris (February 14, 2002). "Acting Out". Backstage. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
29. "Actor Darryl Hickman Marries in Hollywood". Racine Journal Times. November 29, 1959. p. 10. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
30. Morris, Eric (2015). The Diary of a Professional Experiencer: An Autobiographical Journey Into the Evolution of an Acting System. Ermor Enterprises. ISBN 978-0962970955.

Bibliography

• Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, pp. 169–170.
• Best, Marc. Those Endearing Young Charms: Child Performers of the Screen, South Brunswick and New York: Barnes & Co., 1971, pp. 105–110.

External links

• Darryl Hickman at IMDb
• Darryl Hickman at the TCM Movie Database
• Darryl Hickman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Darryl Hickman at the American Film Institute
• 2009 Half-Hour TV Interview on The Creative Community