The moment he was always most proud of was reuniting with Charles Chaplin in 1972. After twenty years of exile from the United States, Chaplin returned that March to receive the Handel Medallion in New York City and a special lifetime achievement Oscar in Hollywood. Coogan was one of the few people there when Chaplin arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. After greeting the other members of the party with perfunctory handshakes, Chaplin immediately recognized Coogan (whom he had not seen in decades), embraced him warmly and said, "You know, I think I would rather see you than anybody else." Chaplin later told Coogan's wife, "You must never forget that your husband is a genius."
His contract with Metro earned him $1 million a year. After his financial troubles with his parents, he helped draft and pass the Coogan Bill, which protects child performers from such exploitation in the future.
When he was cast as Uncle Fester in The Addams Family (1964), Coogan was 49 years old and nearly broke. After the series ended in 1966, he was never out of work again, appearing in numerous television shows and films, most of them only small roles.
In 1935, at the age of 21, he went through the traumatic experience of losing his father, Jack Coogan Sr., and his closest friend, the actor Junior Durkin, in a car crash in the California mountains. Durkin died at the scene almost instantly, and Coogan Sr., who was driving, died a few hours later in a local hospital. Despite his serious injuries, Jackie was the sole survivor of the crash. He would later call it the saddest day of his life.
Coogan joined the army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested a transfer to the United States Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from glider school he became a flight officer and volunteered for a dangerous mission with the 1st Air Commando Group. In December 1943 the unit was sent to India; there he flew British troops and dropped them 100 miles behind enemy lines in Burma at night on 5 March 1944.
He was a college classmate of Brooke Hart, the kidnapping/murder victim. Coogan was reported to have taken part in the famous lynching of Hart's killers.
Working with Near East Relief, Coogan helped raise $1,000,000 for Armenians and Greeks displaced during World War I. In 1924 he toured the United States and Europe with a "Children's Crusade" as part of a fundraising campaign, ultimately providing more than $1,000,000 in clothing, food and other contributions (worth more than $13 million adjusted to 2012 dollars). Coogan was honored by officials in the United States, Greece and Rome, where he met Pope Pius XI.
His contract with MGM in the 1920s earned him $500,000 plus 60% of the gross of films such as Tom Sawyer (1917) and Little Robinson Crusoe (1924).
In The Addams Family (1992), a hardware store was named "Coogan's" in his honor.
In March 1944, during his service in the United States Army, he served as the pilot of a CG-4A Waco (a wooden and canvas transport glider) in the China-Burma-India Theater.
He was the son of vaudeville performers Jack Coogan Sr. and Lillian Coogan, who put him on stage as part of their act when he was only 16 months old.
Producer Sol Lesser admitted that the original master of Coogan's 1922 Oliver Twist (1922) was burned because of its silver nitrate content, worth $80.
For much of 1935 he was engaged to the up-and-coming star Toby Wing. The two split after Coogan, having discovered that his mother and stepfather had squandered his childhood fortune, fell into a complicated depression brought on by alcoholism.
Although he made peace with his mother and stepfather after the lawsuit over his earnings, things were never the same, and his advice to future child stars was: "stay away from mothers."
He was the grandfather of the actor Keith Coogan.
In 1935 he became engaged to the striking actress Toby Wing. When approached for autographs while out with her, he often wrote backwards to impress her, which left the autograph seeker more or less confused. They eventually parted ways because of differences in temperament; given his father's death and his mother's refusal to pay over the money he had earned as a child, he added that 1935 was probably the worst year of his life.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1654 Vine St.
His health was seriously damaged by years of smoking and heavy drinking.
Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku was his swimming instructor.
He was the older brother of Robert Coogan.
Estimates vary, but Coogan earned between $4 million and $8 million during his eight-year run of success as a child star.
In September 1924 he had a 15-minute meeting with Benito Mussolini, who gave him a signed photograph inscribed "Al Piccolo Grande" (To the Little Big One).
He was the former stepfather of Don Stroud.
In the mid-1930s he took a 17-piece orchestra out on a one-night tour. He claimed to earn $12,000 a week.
According to The New York Times, he outranked Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks in a popularity poll in the 1920s.
He began losing his hair at a very early age. He later joked that he was said to have lost some of his hair before "The Kid" was released.
In 1937, performer Thaya Foster sued Coogan after she was injured in a traffic accident while touring with the large troupe he directed alongside Lila Lee. Lee and Lillian Tours, who went on tour with the series, spoke on Foster's behalf during the trial. The California State Industrial Accident Commission ultimately determined in January 1938 that Consolidated Radio Artists was responsible; Coogan, an employee of Consolidated like Foster, was not liable.
In November 1920, six-year-old Coogan was hospitalized with a basal skull fracture after the car he was a passenger in became uncontrollable and struck a tree. All the other passengers escaped with minor scratches. Coogan's injury was thought to be life-threatening, but he was treated and discharged within a few days.
His parents, Lillian and John Coogan, were seasoned career vaudevillians who first presented Jackie to stage audiences when he was 16 months old.
Uncle of Jonathan Coogan.
He retired from acting in 1980 after shooting "The Escape Artist." His last theatrically released film, "The Fury," had been shot in 1979.
Protests were staged against his visit to Vienna in October 1924 because some people on the far right believed he was Jewish. He was in fact of Irish Catholic background.
He appeared in the 1930s radio program "Forever Ernest," but it was cancelled.
Although his performances in "The Kid" and "Oliver Twist" were praised by critics, Coogan was thought to have been miscast in most of the other films he appeared in as a child actor.
Interviewed by Stuart Oderman (BearManor Media) in "Talking to the Piano Player: Silent Film Stars, Writers and Directors Remember."
Biography in "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives., Volume One, 1981-1985," pp. 174-176. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
His funeral service was held in the mausoleum chapel of Holy Cross Mortuary and he was subsequently buried in its cemetery.
Biography in "Who's Who in Comedy," Ronald L. Smith, p. 116. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387.
His career declined after the first sound versions of "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn." "Senility hit him at 13" became a Hollywood joke.
In the Brazilian dub of the 1960s Addams Family TV series and cartoons, Uncle Fester was renamed 'Tio Chico' because of his appearance, particularly his bald head, which resembled the bocce ball popularly known in Brazil as 'chico.'