Darryl Hickman, Prolific Child Actor of the 1940s, Dies at 92

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Hat tip, Svengoolie, a few minutes ago

Darryl Hickman, Prolific Child Actor of the 1940s, Dies at 92

He was in “The Grapes of Wrath” and other films. As an adult, he was seen often on TV. He later oversaw daytime programming at CBS and taught acting.



Darryl Hickman, left, with Henry Fonda and Shirley Mills in “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940), in which Mr. Hickman played Mr. Fonda’s younger brother. 20th Century Fox, via Everett Collection

By Richard Sandomir
May 31, 2024

Darryl Hickman, who worked with top directors as a child actor in the 1940s, shifted to television roles in the ’50s, and succeeded Robert Morse as the star of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” in the early ’60s, died on May 22 at his home in Montecito, Calif. He was 92. … His wife, Lynda (Farmer) Hickman, confirmed the death.

Mr. Hickman viewed himself as a character actor, never a star, during his childhood in Hollywood. … “I was happy doing what I did,” he said on a panel discussion moderated by Robert Osborne on TCM in 2006 with three former child actors, Dickie Moore, Jane Withers and Margaret O’Brien, all of whom he acknowledged had been stars, unlike himself. “I knew I wasn’t in their category.”

In 1940, when he was 8, he beat out dozens of other actors for the part of Winfield Joad, a brother of Tom Joad (played by Henry Fonda), in “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Ford’s adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel about an Oklahoma Dust Bowl family of tenant farmers who join a fraught journey to California.

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Mr. Hickman in a 1962 episode of “The Untouchables.” He acted sporadically in movies and on TV into the 1990s. ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content, via Getty Images

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His younger brother, Dwayne, was the star of the sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” from 1959 to 1963. Mr. Hickman played his older brother, Davey, on three episodes in the first season. … By then, Mr. Hickman said, he was running out of gas as a screen actor and was looking for new opportunities. He began to write scripts for TV series, including “Hawaiian Eye” and “The Loretta Young Show.” He performed onstage in summer stock, which led to his starring in “How to Succeed” for about a year as J. Pierrepont Finch, a window washer who climbs the corporate ladder.

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Richard Sandomir is an obituaries writer. He previously wrote about sports media and sports business. He is also the author of several books, including “The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper and the Making of a Classic.” More about Richard Sandomir

[Faux pas]

1. I forgot

how cute he was