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Mikey Day (SNL, Maya & Marty, Robot Chicken) comes over to talk to me about his job. More specifically, we talk about our favorite SNL cast members and sketches, the audition, aliens, shifting from writer to cast member and of course, David S. Pumpkins. We also say Moorpark a lot.

Lewis Delaney Offield was born on November 12, 1903, in Sedalia, Missouri to a grain dealer father and psychology teacher mother. When little Lewis was 5 years old, his family moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, possibly the inspiration for his future name of “Oakie.” He would take the name “Jack” from the first character he played on stage. Jack spent time living with his grandmother in Kansas City, Missouri, and worked as a paperboy for the Kansas City Star. He later recalled making especially good money selling “extras” during the reelection of President Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

The Financial District of Manhattan, Wall Street, was bombed on September 16, 1920. While the crime was never solved, it was believed that a group of anarchists was responsible. Young Jack, not quite 17, barely escaped being among the 38 killed. Hundreds more were wounded, and remnants of the attack can still be seen today at 23 Wall Street.

Jack started appearing as a mimic/comedian in amateur theater in New York, and made his professional stage debut in 1923 as a chorus boy in a Broadway production of George M. Cohan’s Little Nellie Kelly. After appearing in various Broadway musicals and comedies from 1923-27, Jack moved to Hollywood, appearing in 5 movies at the end of the silent film era. He signed with Paramount at the beginning of the “talkie” era, then decided to freelance when that contract ended in 1934. Throughout his entire career, he refused to wear makeup of any kind.

Jack was known as “The World’s Oldest Freshman” because of all the collegiate movies he appeared in, including Sweetie (1929) with Helen Kane (pictured above). In Rise and Shine (1941), 38 year old Jack played an 18 year old senior.

The part he’s probably best remembered for is that of Benzino Napaloni, dictator of Bacteria (modeled after Italy’s then-dictator Benito Mussolini) in The Great Dictator (1940), Charlie Chaplin’s satirical look at Nazism made at the height of Adolf Hitler’s power. Jack’s performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Below, Jack is pictured with (L-R) Henry Daniell, Charlie Chaplin, and Carter DeHaven (Gloria’s father).

Jack didn’t win the Oscar, but apparently was awarded an honorary Oscar, bent over in laughter. Supposedly Jack and Charlie Chaplin never spoke again after making this movie, because Chaplin was upset that Jack had upstaged him in every scene.

The 40′s saw Jack work with Donald and Peggy multiple times, most notably as their father, Pete, in The Merry Monahans (1944). They all also appeared in Bowery to Broadway (1944) together.

Jack and Peggy were also in On Stage Everybody (1945) and That’s the Spirit (1945).

Jack was married twice. He and first wife Venita Varden were married from 1936 to 1944. (She died in the United Airlines Flight 624 crash in 1948).

His second wife, from 1950 until his death, was actress Victoria Horne. You old movies fans may remember her well from Harvey or The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

What makes Jack’s career, especially in musicals, most remarkable is the fact that he was “functionally deaf” and relied on lip reading. When he danced or sang (on key, yet), he could feel the music’s beat, but couldn’t hear it. Because of his deafness, he did not enjoy working with Spencer Tracy, who had a habit of mumbling his lines in order to sound natural. Jack had a hard time reading his lips in their shared scenes, and they never worked together again after Looking for Trouble (1943).

The cause of Jack’s hearing loss is not entirely clear: scarlet fever when he was 9? The Wall Street explosion in 1920? Regardless of the cause, his deafness never affected his work, and there were rarely, if ever, accommodations made for his disability. In fact, director Jules Dassen made a point of mentioning that, when making his film noir Thieves’ Highway (1949), Jack never caused any delays in filming.

Jack’s career slowed down in the 50′s and 60′s, although he continued to work in movies and TV.

In 1959, he served as pallbearer, along with Raoul Walsh, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, Mickey Rooney, Mike Romanoff and Otto Reichow, at Errol Flynn’s funeral.

Jack, America’s “Joy Boy” died at the age of 74 in Los Angeles on January 23, 1978, from an aortic aneurysm, only 29 days after the death of his Great Dictator costar and director, Charles Chaplin.

In 1981, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences established the “Jack Oakie Lecture on Comedy in Film” as an annual event. At the inaugural event, he was described as “a master of comic timing and a beloved figure in the industry.”

Jack has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard, and his hand and footprints can be found at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

Despite earning millions as a child star, all Jackie ever got was a weekly allowance of $6.25. When he turned 21, though, his earnings would be turned over to him, right? No. After dealing with the loss of both his father and his best friend in the same car accident in 1935, Jackie had more trouble to deal with almost right away.

His mother Lillian, now remarried to Arthur Bernstein, the family lawyer, refused to turn any of Jackie’s earnings over to him after he turned 21. After all, Jackie had enjoyed himself, and thought he was playing in front of the cameras! “No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything,” she said, also claiming that her son “was a bad boy.” Mr. Bernstein declared, “The law is on our side, and Jackie Coogan will not get a cent from his past earnings.” As it turns out, there were lots fewer cents left than Jackie thought: most of the money had been spent by the Bernsteins on fur coats, diamonds, expensive cars.

Jackie spent an agonizing two years before making the decision to sue. After the suit was settled, he was left with only $126,000 of the $250,000 that remained of his earnings. The California legislature acted quickly, enacting the California Child Actor’s Bill, also known as the Coogan Law. This bill required a child actor’s employer to set aside 15% of the child’s earnings in a trust, called a Coogan account, and also set specifications for the actor’s schooling, work hours and time off. When Jackie fell on hard times, he asked his old friend Charlie Chaplin for help, and Chaplin handed him $1000 without hesitating. Jackie called this period the lowest point of his life. “My stepfather was related to many people, and I was blackballed by the studios.” He eventually reconciled with his mother and stepfather, but things were never the same, and his advice to future child stars was “Stay away from mothers.”

Jackie married starlet Betty Grable in 1937 (they divorced in ‘39).

They appeared in three movies together between 1936 and 1939, including Million Dollar Legs (1939), with a youngster by the name of Donald O’Connor.

Jackie enlisted in the Army in March, 1941, and after the December attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested a transfer to the Air Forces as a glider pilot (he’d had civilian flight experience).

He was made a flight officer after graduating from glider school and volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. This group was sent to India in December of 1943. Jackie flew British troops under General Wingate in March, 1944 during the Burma Campaign, landing them in a jungle clearing at night, 100 miles behind the Japanese lines.

He later said, “If you think the natives were surprised when our gliders landed, you should have seen them when we opened the mouth of one and drove out a jeep.” He was awarded the Air Medal for meritorious service.

After the war, acting jobs were harder to come by and Jackie began taking character roles and working on TV. He worked with Donald again in 1957, in The Buster Keaton Story.

In 1964, 50 years old and almost broke, Jackie landed the television role he’s probably best remembered for, that of Uncle Fester on The Addams Family. From then on, he never lacked work until he retired in the mid-70s.

Charlie Chaplin, the man responsible for making Jackie a child star, returned to America in 1972, after two decades of exile, to receive the Handel Medallion in New York City, and a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in Hollywood. Jackie Coogan was among the small crowd that greeted him at Los Angeles International Airport. Chaplin greeted the others with routine handshakes, then, although he hadn’t seen Jackie in decades, immediately recognized him and gave him a warm hug. “You know, I think I would rather see you than anybody else,” Chaplin told Jackie. Later, Chaplin told Jackie’s wife, “You must never forget that your husband is a genius.” Jackie considered this 1972 reunion with Charlie Chaplin his proudest moment.

Jackie was married four times, to Betty Grable (1937-1939), Flower Parry (1941-1943), Ann McCormack (1946-1951), seen below with Jackie and the O’Connors, and Dorothea “Dodie” Lamphere (1952-1984). He had four children. His grandson, Keith Coogan (aka Keith Mitchell) is also an actor, known for “The Waltons” (1979-80), The Fox and the Hound (1981), and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (1991).

Jackie was undergoing kidney dialysis on March 1, 1984 when his blood pressure dropped. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died of a heart attack. Per his request, his funeral was open to the public.

He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for motion pictures, at 1612 Vine Street.

Read Part 1 here.