LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Roddy Mcdowall: New York
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Like his friend Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowall, who died of cancer at age 70 on Oct. 3, was the rare child star who stayed a star all his life. ''Most child actors have a tremendous problem when they grow up,'' he told Interview in 1989. ''They suddenly have to learn how to act.'' McDowall's native charm masked his craft. Though seldom the leading man, the eternally youthful character actor worked constantly, amassing more than 100 movie credits and just as many TV appearances, as well as numerous stage roles, including one in The Fighting Cock, for which he received a 1960 Tony. Among the most sociable of Hollywood denizens, McDowall, born in London to a merchant seaman father and a mother who encouraged his acting, was famous for his loyalty to his friends, many of whom became subjects for his accomplished side career as a portrait photographer. McDowall took up the camera in the '50s after he came to New York to get stage experience, fearing he was finished in movies.
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British actor "Roddy McDowall"'s father was an officer in the English merchant marine, and his mother was a would-be actress. When it came time to choose a life's calling, McDowall bowed to his mother's influence. After winning an acting prize in a school play, he was able to secure film work in Britain, beginning at age ten with 1938's "Scruffy". He appeared in 16 roles of varying sizes and importance before he and his family were evacuated to the U.S. during the 1940 Battle of Britain. McDowall arrival in Hollywood coincided with the wishes of 20th Century-Fox executive "Darryl F. Zanuck" to create a "new "Freddie Bartholomew"." He tested for the juvenile lead in Fox's "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), winning both the role and a long contract.
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From the military academy Roddy went back into films but in his early twenties he moved to New York and a career on the stage. It was here that he notched up an outstanding personal triumph in George Bernard Shaw's "Misalliance". The New York years ... brought McDowall a Tony and an Emmy.
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