Dickie Moore

A cherubic boy with pronounced dimples, Dickie Moore was a prolific child actor in features from the late 1920s through the 1950s in such films as "Blonde Venus" (1932), "Sergeant York" (1941) and "Heaven Can Wait" (1943) among his hundred-plus titles. Moore hit his stride at age seven, when he appeared in over 20 films, including "Oliver Twist" (1932), for which he played the title role, and numerous "Our Gang" shorts. Like many juvenile actors, his career slowed as he reached his teenaged years, though there were occasional choice parts, like the courageous "Kid" in "Out of the Past" (1947). He also co-produced and starred in an Oscar-nominated short film, "The Boy and the Eagle" (1949), but by the 1950s, he had abandoned acting for public relations, which kept him active for several decades. Moore's long, successful and turmoil-free life stood in stark contrast to the countless stories of child actors whose lives crumbled into disarray after their stars had dimmed.