arryl Gerard Hickman (born July 28, 1931) is an American film and television actor, former television executive, and child star of the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life
Hickman first gained fame as a child actor during the late 1930s and 1940s, appearing in The Grapes of Wrath, Men of Boys Town, The Human Comedy and Leave Her to Heaven, among many others. He also made a featured appearance in the 1942 Our Gang comedy Going to Press. In 1944, he played the antagonist to Jimmy Lydon's Henry Aldrich character in the film Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout. In 1946, he played the young Sam Masterson in the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. By the time he was twenty-one, Hickman had appeared in more than one hundred motion pictures.
Career
After spending his entire childhood as an actor, Hickman retired from entertainment to enter a monastery in 1951, only to return to Hollywood just over a year later. He continued acting, but received fewer roles than he had in the peak of his career. He was cast in 1952 in the episode "Fight Town" of the syndicated western television series, The Range Rider. In 1954, he appeared as Chet Sterling in the "Annie Gets Her Man" episode of another syndicated western series, Annie Oakley, with Gail Davis. In 1957, Hickman appeared in the episode "Copper Wire" of the syndicated western-themed crime drama Sheriff of Cochise. Later that year he appeared as murderer Steve Harris in the second Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece." Hickman appeared four times in the 1957-1958 syndicated drama series, Men of Annapolis, about midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He also guest starred in Kenneth Tobey's adventure drama, Whirlybirds.
In 1959, Hickman appeared with his younger brother, Dwayne Hickman, on the latter's CBS sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, playing his older brother, Davey. In 1959, Darryl Hickman appeared in an episode of Wanted: Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen, titled "Rope Law"; on May 9, 1959, he was a guest star on CBS's Gunsmoke as Andy Hill.
He guest-starred in the 1960 episode "Moment of Fear" of CBS's The DuPont Show with June Allyson, also featuring Edgar Bergen. He guest starred on NBC's science fiction series The Man and the Challenge. During the American Civil War Centennial, Hickman played a young Union soldier in the short-lived NBC series The Americans (1961), and as an officer in Walt Disney's Johnny Shiloh (1963).
He had a key role in the 1981 film Sharky's Machine, directed by and starring Burt Reynolds, as a corrupt cop. Hickman eventually became a television executive and an acting coach, as well as a voice actor for Hanna-Barbera Productions towards the end of a five-decade career in the entertainment industry. Some of his notable voiceovers were Wags in The Biskitts and Derek from The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible. His book, The Unconscious Actor: Out of Control, In Full Command, was published in April 2007.
Because of his young age at the time, Hickman is the last surviving cast member in many of the films in which he appeared.
Personal life
Hickman married actress Pamela Lincoln in 1959; they had met on the set of the film The Tingler in which they both appear. Darryl and Pamela had two sons. Their younger son, Justin Hickman, was nineteen years old when he committed suicide in 1985.
Source: Wikipedia