<Archive Obituary> Tommy Rettig (February 15th 1996)
Bill Schenley
Rey (near Los Angeles, California) ... Lassie was onboard his boat ...
the LaSea.>
FROM: The Independent ~
By David Shipman
Tommy Rettig was a fresh-faced, cheerful and clean-cut kid who found
solace in drugs when adulthood destroyed his celebrity status.
He began his career at the age of six, as Annie Oakley's kid brother
in Annie Get Your Gun. In 1950 Elia Kazan cast him as the son of
Richard Widmark and Barbara Bel Geddes in Panic in the Streets; 20th
Century-Fox signed him to a contract. He was put into The Jackpot, in
which he and Natalie Wood had James Stewart and Barbara Hale for
parents.
Movies were awash with youngsters, and the industry had realised that
the public preferred the natural to the cute. When Fox wasn't using
Rettig he was loaned out - for instance, to Universal to play Patricia
Neale's offspring in Weekend with Father (1951) and to Warner Bros to
be Jane Wyman's son in So Big (1953).
His most important role was in the bizarre The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T
(1953), as a boy forced to stay indoors to practise piano; he imagines
himself into a horrific new land lorded over by Dr Terwilliker (Hans
Conreid), whose fortress contains 500 boys playing scales and, in the
dungeons, moulding creatures who had dared play other instruments. His
best remembered movie role is as Robert Mitchum's son in River of No
Return (1954), fording the rapids with Marilyn Monroe.
In his six years in pictures Rettig had leading roles in 14 films. In
1954 he began a weekly television series with Lassie. He played Jeff
Miller, the collie's master, till 1958. When show-business lost
interest he tried various jobs, including photography and selling
tools.
He and his wife moved to a California farm, where he cultivated
marijuana; he was sentenced to two years' probation in 1972, but in
1975 was ordered to serve five years for running cocaine. That was
dropped on appeal, but he was indicted again in 1980 for drug
offences.
Later he was a computer programmer and drug-counsellor.
Thomas Noel Rettig, actor: born Jackson Heights, New York 10 December
1941; died Marina del Rey 15 February 1996.
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- Little Boy Lost -
FROM: The Guardian (February 20th 1996) ~
Ronald Bergan
Tommy Rettig, who has died aged 54, was the antidote to those
cinema-goers allergic to child stars. He didn't have cute freckles or
golden curls; he wasn't precociously talented; he didn't have a gap
toothed smile; he seldom sought sympathy, and he wasn't particularly
mischievous. He portrayed uncomplicated, healthy, energetic, normal
pre-teen boys - a poignant irony in view of his post-screen life.
There are few spheres in which the transition from childhood to
adulthood is as painful as that of the acting profession. Suddenly,
all the qualities treasured in the child become liabilities. Some,
like Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Garland, made it just as big as adult
stars, though both tended to become serial brides, and the latter died
of an overdose of sleeping pills; others retired gracefully in
adolescence, managing to build new careers.
But the exception tends to prove the rule. Bobby Driscoll, favourite
of the Disney Studios, became a drug addict and was found dead in the
rubble of an abandoned tenement building; and drugs also claimed River
Phoenix.
Tommy Rettig found it difficult to accept the fact that he was washed
up as an actor at the age of 17. He tried various jobs such as
photographer, tool salesman and health club manager, but never settled
down. In the early 1970s, he retired with his wife to a California
farm, where he was arrested for growing marijuana. He was sentenced to
two years of probation but, in 1975, was imprisoned for five years for
smuggling cocaine. He continued to smoke marijuana through bankruptcy
and divorce, though he held a position as computer programmer for a
while. He was said to have died of natural causes at his home in Los
Angeles.
Best to remember him as the likeable kid in over a dozen movies of the
1950s. He started his stage career at the age of six, touring with
Mary Martin in Annie Get Your Gun. He made his film debut three years
later in 1950, a year in which he played Richard Widmark's son in Elia
Kazan's Panic In The Streets, soberly coming to terms with his doctor
father's mission to trace a plague-carrier; one of James Stewart's
lucky offspring in The Jackpot, and Jane Powell's lively little
brother in the period holiday musical, Two Weeks With Love.
In Paula (1952), he was brilliantly effective as the victim of a
hit-and-run driver, who has lost his ability to speak. He is being
taught to talk again by Loretta Young, whom he doesn't know was
responsible for the accident. When, eventually, the truth is revealed,
his prime motivation for regaining his speech is to expose her.
Rettig managed to make an impact as Robert Mitchum's son in Otto
Preminger's River Of No Return (1954). In it, he asks Marilyn Monroe:
"What's opera?" She modestly replies: "It's music. Very high -toned
and fancy, not like mine," and goes on to demonstrate it by serenading
the happy lad with a ditty.
His largest - and best - role was as the reluctant piano pupil in the
bizarre musical, The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr T (1953), in which he even
gets to sing a few songs by Frederick Hollander.
He is a delight as the spirited lad, who would rather play baseball
than take his piano lessons, and has a nightmare about his
imprisonment in the castle of Dr T, who runs a piano school for 500
captive boys.
In 1954, Rettig was chosen out of another 500 boys to play Jeff
Miller, the Mid -western farm lad, the owner of Lassie for the popular
TV series. "With Lassie, I'd gladly work for free," said the
12-year-old actor when he got the part. He romped cheerfully with the
collie (in fact, many dogs) for over four years, until age caught up
with him.
Tommy Rettig, actor, born December 10, 1941; died February 15, 1996
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Photo of Tommy Rettig:
http://www.classicmoviekids.com/images/r/rettig/rettig307.jpg
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For another side of Tommy Rettig ...
FoxPro Obituary:
http://www.lassie.net/tommy.htm