Biography for
Freddie Bartholomew

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Date of Birth

28 March 1924, Dublin, Ireland

Date of Death

23 January 1992, Sarasota, Florida, USA (emphysema)

Birth Name

Frederick Llewellyn March

Mini Biography

One of the most popular child actors in film history, Freddie Bartholomew was born Frederick Llwellyn in Dublin, Ireland, in 1924. He was raised in England by an aunt, Millicent Barthomolew, from whom he took his surname. Freddie had appeared on the London stage and in 2 minor British films when on a visit to the U.S. with his aunt in 1934, he was offered the title role in The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger (1935) by MGM. This film made him an overnight star and he went on to appear in such classics as Anna Karenina (1935), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), and Captains Courageous (1937). His salary soared to $2,500 a week making him filmdom's highest paid child star after Shirley Temple. But with the advent of young manhood, his dimpled, angelic good looks began to fade. After a stint in the Air Force in World War II, his film career was all but finished. In 1954, he went to work for an advertising agency and remarked at the time that the millions he had earned as a child had been spent mostly on lawsuits, one of which involved a headline court battle in 1937 between his parents and his aunt for custody of young Freddie. "I was drained dry," he said. Freddie Bartholomew died in Florida in 1992 at the age of 67. He leaves a legacy of some of the greatest adventure films of the 1930s.))

IMDb Mini Biography By: Tom McDonough

Trivia

British child actor of the 1930s.

Conflicting with some sources, a New York Times obituary article published 24 Jan 1992 states his birthplace was not London, England, where he was reared, but actually Dublin, Ireland.

The American child actor David Holt had originally been cast as the title character in The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger (1935). But the film's producer, David O. Selznick, developed misgivings about having an American boy portray a quintessentially British boy. He replaced Holt with Bartholomew.

Finding difficult to make the transition from child to adult roles, he ended up moving to television, and then advertising.

He was taught to lose his Irish accent and speak perfect English by the teachers at the Italia Conti school in London.

After leaving acting in 1951, Bartholomew vowed never to give any interviews about the so-called "good old days". However, he did give one interview shortly before his death in "MGM: When the Lion Roars" (1992), where he was found to have lost his English accent completely.

Retired from television work in 1991 due to the onset of emphysema.

Was abandoned by his parents when he was a baby and was raised by his aunt in London. After he became a successful child actor, his birth mother filed a law suit attempting to get a piece of his earnings.

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