Thursday, March 02, 2006

Jack Wild 1953 - 2006

Actor Jack Wild, best known for playing the Artful Dodger as a teenager in the 1968 film "Oliver!," has died from cancer at 53.

I never saw "Oliver!", but I do remember him as Jimmy from the TV series "H.R. Pufnstuf".

12 comments:

Sar said...

Jeesh, they're dropping like flies this week.

RIP Jack - a.k.a Oliver - a.k.a Jimmy.

cube said...

For sure. It's been a bad week for old TV stars, except Wild was not that old.

Karen said...

I don't recall who he is but this has been a sad week for celebrities. Also, it seems like every year in January and February there are more deaths than usual.

Minka said...

I don´t know him either. In these instances I pull my east-German card and claim ignorance due to isolation:)

Jamie Dawn said...

I remember the song from that kids' series.

Jay Noel said...

I was too young to remember that show. I do remember him in Oliver though. He has a really soft whisper of a singing voice.

53 is too damn young.

tlm said...

This is the first I've heard of his passing, which is truly sad. I saw that goofy "child stars" special on VH1 a few weeks ago, and it mentioned that Jimmy got an Oscar nomination (!) for that Oliver! role. I hadn't known that.

He was wonderful in that movie.

cube said...

karen: it does seem that way. I'd love to do a statistical analysis & know once & for all.

monica: that's OK. Thanks for coming by.

j.d.: Yes, the theme song... H.R.Pufnstuf can't do a little, but he can't do enough.

phoenix: too young is right.

tlm: I remember hearing the big hooplah about the Oliver oscar nomination, but I never saw it. I do fondly remember the show. Witchiepoo was my favorite character.

eyesallaround: I know. It makes me feel old. Yikes!






phoenix:

carrie said...

i loved h.r. puffnstuff

David Amulet said...

I heard that Phil Collins in his youth also played the Artful Dodger in London plays of "Oliver." he's not dead like Jack Wild ... only dead to me.

-- david

cube said...

david: I did not know that about the over rated Phil "Dirt" Collins.

Caz said...

Cube - yep, I can still hear the theme song of Pufnstuf, it was a favorite, and he must have been every little girls scrumpet, even though we weren't old enough to understand what that meant. Oh I loved that show!