The famous child actor, Freddie Bartholomew, was born on 28 March 1924 at 17 Radcliffe Avenue Harlesden. His father Cecil Llewellyn Bartholomew had travelled to Canada in 1913 and joined the Canadian Army in November 1915. He was sent to fight in France and Belgium where he was injured and had his right leg amputated. He was discharged in January 1918 and returned to his parents in Warminster Wiltshire.
In 1919 Cecil married Lilian May Clarke. They first lived at 300 Earlsfield Road Wandsworth and had two daughters, Eileen born in 1920 and Hilda in 1922. A year later they had moved to Harlesden where Freddie was born. When Freddie was three and a half, he was sent to live with his maiden aunt Millicent (also spelled as Myllicent), who had pleaded to be allowed to bring him up at Carlton Villa Warminster, the home of his grandparents. ‘Aunt Cissie’ encouraged Freddie’s acting and he appeared in local amateur shows. She enrolled him at the Italia Conti children’s theatre school in Lamb’s Conduit Street, where a fellow pupil was Noel Coward. Freddie appeared in a few short English films including ‘Toyland’ (1930) made by Gainsborough Pictures.
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In 1934 the Hollywood producer David O Selznick and director George Cukor were making a film of Charles Dickens’ ‘David Copperfield’. They auditioned hundreds of boys in America for the title role but none had the right accent, so in June they travelled to London where Itali Conti recommended Freddie. He was taken to the Elstree Studios for a film test and Selznick and Cukor knew they had found their David Copperfield. But getting Freddie to Hollywood was complicated by British immigration and child labour laws. To get round this Cissie took 10 year old Freddie on what she said was a holiday to America. On 21 July 1934 they sailed on the SS Berengaria to New York and then travelled to Hollywood where the MGM film was being made with W.C. Fields as Mr Micawber. He and Freddie got on very well during the filming. Looking back much later Freddie said, ‘Some of my happiest memories are those of W.C. Fields entertaining with his juggling when we made David Copperfield’.
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‘David Copperfield’ was a huge hit when it was released in January 1935 and Freddie became a star. He next appeared as Greta Garbo’s son in ‘Anna Karenina’ in 1935, and then as ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ for Twentieth Century-Fox with sixteen year old Mickey Rooney in 1936.
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Freddie’s salary quickly went from $100 to $1,500 a week, second only to Shirley Temple who received $2,500 as a child actor. Cissie received $200 a week, and she was legally appointed his guardian by a Los Angeles court on 22 October 1935.
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Freddie
and Aunt Cissie (Getty Images)
The Bartholomew family were sent a registered letter informing them they had until 22 April 1936 to contest the decision. Cecil was working as a clerk for the Ministry of Agriculture and struggling to support his wife and two daughters. In April 1936 Lilian May travelled to America and told the press: ‘We have not had a letter from Freddie or his aunt since they left England. We have written and cabled a number of times without reply. We have tried to telephone Hollywood, but the call was refused. So at last I decided to make the trip. I would have done so before but lack of funds prevented it’.
She had instructions to see New York lawyer Philip Levey. But on 11 April Cecil went to Scotland Yard to say Lilian had not seen Levey and reported her as missing and possibly kidnapped in a plot to stop her regaining Freddie. Two days later Lilian turned up in California where she saw the British Consul and filed a case to try to over-turn Millicent’s legal guardianship of Freddie. Then Cecil dropped a bombshell when he sent a telegram stating he had complete confidence in Millicent and the best interests of his son would be served by leaving control in her hands. He had made an agreement with Millicent to obtain a proportion of Freddie’s earnings. The first legal battle ended peacefully, and Freddie was able to see his parents and grandparents who had travelled to see him. His grandparents stayed on in America.
In 1937 Freddie made ‘Captains Courageous’ with Spencer Tracy which was very successful, and Tracy won an Oscar. With four years remaining on his traditional seven-year contract at MGM Aunt Cissie declared that Freddie needed a raise and the freedom to work with other studios. The company refused and a contract case ensued which kept Freddie off the screen for a year. Eventually the court sided with the studio and blocked him working for anyone else. Cissie reluctantly agreed and MGM raised Freddie’s salary to $2,500 a week.
Despite this increase, Freddie was in trouble financially and in February 1938 Cissie and Freddie petitioned the courts for permission to discontinue payments of 20% of his salary to his father and sisters, awarded in previous court sessions. There was just $1,800 in Freddie’s bank account with massive debts. He owed $67,000 in income tax, $15,000 in attorney’s fees, $5,000 in agent’s fees, and $44,300 in past agent’s fees. The court allowed payments to his parents and attorneys to be set aside and made Freddie a financial ward of the Superior Court. Now no one, not even Cissie, could spend Freddie’s cash without court approval. In 1939 he was able to bank some money, but the family legal battles continued to 1942 and used up most of his income.
But his problems were made worse by lack of work. As Freddie grew taller his popularity declined as he became a young man. World War II saw another extended absence from the screen. He signed up on 13 January 1943 but only served a year in the US Forces before being discharged for a back injury. He returned to Hollywood in January 1944, but he was no longer a child star and had difficulty finding good film roles.
On 25 April 1946 22-year-old Freddie married his press agent, the former Maely Daniele who was 28 and twice divorced. She was a friend of Billie Holiday and other jazz musicians. Cissie tried to stop the marriage, but Freddie and Maely eloped to Nevada. This put a strain on his relationship with his aunt and Cissie returned to England. She died in Warminster in 1970. Freddie’s parents died in Camborne Road Putney, Cecil in 1968 and Lilian in 1996.
In 1948 Freddie toured Australia with a one-man show playing piano and telling jokes. He then settled with Maely in New York and became a Chanel 11 WPIX television director in 1949. The marriage was unhappy, and they divorced.
In 1953 he married Aileen Paul a TV chef who he had directed in ‘New York Cooks’ for WPIX. They were married for 23 years and had two children. Freddie became an executive with the Benton & Bowles Agency and produced several TV shows. He died of emphysema on 23 January 1992 in Sarasota, Florida.
This is an unusual story showing Freddie’s meteoric rise to stardom as a child actor, how he lost most of his fortune in the family legal squabbles, and the problems he had finding work as an adult actor.
For more information, the best biography of Freddie is an online blog by Cliff Aliperti.
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