BRANDON DE WILDE BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Brandon De Wilde was born on April 9th, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York with the birth name Andre Brandon De Wilde. He was born into a family already highly involved in the entertainment industry. His father, Frederick was a stage manager and his mother, Eugenia was a working actress.
As a child he was already being exposed to working on the stage and in films as a child actor. He made his Broadway debut at the age of nine in, "The Member of the Wedding" which ran for 492 performances. Brandon was already earning a great reputation for himself as a talented child actor. He was also the first child actor to be awarded a Donaldson Award which were awards given in different categories such as 'best new play', 'best new musical', 'best performance', 'best debut' and 'best costumes and set design'.
His first film role and one of the most memorable ones was when he portrayed the character, Joey Starrett in the film, "Shane" (1953) starring Alan Ladd, Van Heflin and Jean Arthur in which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
He then followed this role with another starring role in his own television series called "Jamie" (1953-1954). Sadly, even though this show received decent ratings and a good public following, it was cancelled due to a contract dispute.
De Wilde continued to get cast in a number of film roles during his early teenage years such as on, "Good-Bye My Lady" (1956), "Night Passage" (1957), "The Missouri Traveler" (1958) and "Blue Denim" (1959).
As he entered into the 1960's he took a number of roles in films and on television. He appeared opposite Warren Beatty in, "All Fall Down" (1962), "Hud" (1963) starring Paul Newman and "In Harm's Way" (1965) starring John Wayne. De Wilde also worked with Walt Disney Productions on a two picture deal, "The Tenderfoot" (1964-1965) which was a three part comedy Western for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color Television show.
By the mid 60's, his film roles were decreasing and he mostly worked on television making a number of appearances. He found it more difficult to find work as an adult actor as his small stature and appearance which worked well for him as a child had the opposite affect as an adult actor. His final western role was in, "The Deserter" (1971).
Even though from such an early age, he had a successful career as an actor, he had always had aspirations of embarking on a music career. However, he was a child acting prodigy and music was never really given a chance.
De Wilde married twice, first to Susan Margot Maw from December 19th, 1963 through March 21st, 1970 and together they had one son, Jesse. He then married Janice Gero in 1972 and they remained together until his unfortunate passing.
Sadly at the age of only thirty years old, on July 6th, 1972, De Wilde was involved in a traffic accident in Denver Colorado when he rolled his camper driving at 3:25 PM on the way to visit his wife in a Denver hospital. His remains were originally buried in Los Angeles, California, but later his parents actually had his remains moved to Pine Lawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, New York.
Filmography
1972 Wild in the Sky
1971 Ironside
1971 Rod Serling's Night Gallery
1971 The Deserter
1962-1970 The Virginian
1970 The Young Rebels
1970 Insight
1969 Love, American Style
1969 Hawaii Five-O
1969 The Name of the Game
1968 Journey to the Unknown
1967 IIThe Trip
1966 ABC Stage 67
1966 Combat!
1965 In Harm's Way
1965 The Defenders
1965 Those Calloways
1964 12 O'Clock High
1964 Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
1964 The Greatest Show on Earth
1963 The Doctors and the Nurses
1963 Hud
1962 All Fall Down
1962 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1959-1961 Wagon Train
1961 Thriller
1959 Blue Denim
1959 Alcoa Theatre
1958 The Missouri Traveler
1957 The United States Steel Hour
1957 Night Passage
1956 Screen Director's Playhouse
1956 Good-bye, My Lady
1956 Star Stage
1955-1956 Climax!
1953-1954 Jamie
1953 The Plymouth Playhouse
1953 Shane
1952 The Member of the Wedding
1951-1952 The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse
