George Vincent Homeier (October 5, 1930 – June 25, 2017), known professionally as Skip Homeier, was an American actor who started his career at the age of eleven and became a child star.

Career

Child actor

Homeier was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 5, 1930.[1] He began to act for radio shows at the age of six as Skippy Homeier.[2] At the age of 11, he worked on the radio show Portia Faces Life as well as making "dramatic commercial announcements" on The O'Neills and Against the Storm.[3] In 1942, he joined the casts of Wheatena Playhouse and We, the Abbotts.[4] From 1943 until 1944, he played the role of Emil in the Broadway play and film Tomorrow, the World!. Cast as a child indoctrinated into Nazism who is brought to the United States from Germany following the death of his parents, Homeier was praised for his performance. He played the troubled youngster in the film adaptation of Tomorrow, the World! (1944) and received good reviews playing opposite Fredric March and Betty Field as his American uncle and aunt.

Adult roles

Homeier changed his first name from Skippy to Skip when he turned eighteen. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles.[5]

Although Homeier worked frequently throughout his childhood and adolescence, playing wayward youths with no chance of redemption, he did not become a major star; but he did make a transition from child actor to adult, especially in a range of roles as delinquent youths, common in Hollywood films of the 1950s. Some of these films were Film noir works.

He also developed a talent for playing strong character roles in war films, such as Halls of Montezuma (1950), Sam Fuller's Fixed Bayonets! (1951) and Beachhead (1954).

Homeier and Evelyn Ankers in the General Electric Theater presentation of "The Hunted", 1954

In 1954, he guest-starred in an episode of the NBC legal drama Justice, based on cases of the Legal Aid Society of New York.[6] He was cast later in an episode of Steve McQueen's Wanted Dead or Alive, a CBS Western series. Homeier played a man sought for a crime of which he is innocent, but who has no faith in the legal system's ability to provide justice. Fleeing from McQueen's bounty hunter character Josh Randall, Homeier's character's foot slips and he accidentally falls to his death from a cliff.

He appeared in a 1955 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with co-star Joanne Woodward entitled "Momentum". Homeier appeared as Kading in an episode of the NBC western Jefferson Drum ("The Post", 1958), starring Jeff Richards. In 1959, he appeared as a drover named Lucky in Rawhide, Incident of the Blue Fire. In 1960, Skip appeared on an episode of The Rifleman: The Spoiler as Brud Evans. Then, from 1960 to 1961, he starred in the title role in Dan Raven, a short-lived NBC crime drama set on Sunset Strip of West Hollywood, California, with a number of celebrities playing themselves in guest roles. The series only lasted for thirteen episodes.[2] In the summer of 1961, he appeared in an episode of The Asphalt Jungle, and later that same year, he performed as a replacement drover and temporary "ramrod" in an episode of Rawhide ("Incident of the Long Shakedown").[7] Homeier was also cast as “Wichita Kid “ in a Rawhide episode airing November 23, 1965 entitled Brush War at Buford.

Homeier also made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, both times as the defendant. In 1961, he played Dr. Edley in "The Case of the Pathetic Patient", and in 1965, he played the police sergeant Dave Wolfe in "The Case of the Silent Six". In 1964, he guest-starred in The Addams Family episode "Halloween with the Addams Family" with Don Rickles. Also in 1964, he portrayed Dr. Roy Clinton in The Outer Limits episode "Expanding Human" (1963). In a very busy year, he also appeared in the Combat! episode "The Impostor" (1964, S3 E10). He also appeared in the Combat! episode "Night Patrol" (1963, S1 E22) as Lt. Billy Joe Cranston.

Homeier was cast in the feature film The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) with Don Knotts; and he continued to be frequently cast on television as a guest star, often as a villain, including in all four of Irwin Allen's science-fiction series in the mid-to-late 1960s. He guest-starred as well on Star Trek: The Original Series in two episodes: as the Nazi-like character Melakon in "Patterns of Force" (1968), as Dr. Rota Sevrin in "The Way to Eden" (1969), and in Longstreet (1971). In 1969 he was a guest star on the TV show Mannix, in the third season episode called "A Sleep in the Deep". One of his last roles was a one-liner in the television film The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) as a senior Secret Service official. He retired from acting aged 50.[2]

Death

Homeier died on June 25, 2017 at the age of 86 from spinal myelopathy at his home in Indian Wells, California. He is survived by his wife, Della, and his sons Peter and Michael from his first marriage (1951–1962) to Nancy Van Noorden Field.[8][9]

Selected filmography

Tomorrow, the World! (1944) - Emil Bruckner

Boys' Ranch (1946) - Skippy

Arthur Takes Over (1948) - Arthur Bixby

Mickey (1948) - Hank Evans

The Big Cat (1949) - Jim Hawks - Gil's Son

The Gunfighter (1950) - Hunt Bromley

Halls of Montezuma (1951) - Pretty Boy

Sealed Cargo (1951) - Steve

Fixed Bayonets! (1951) - Whitey

Sailor Beware (1952) - Mac

Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952) - Carl Pennock

The Last Posse (1953) - Art Romer

Beachhead (1954) - Reynolds

The Lone Gun (1954) - Cass Downing

Dawn at Socorro (1954) - Buddy Ferris

Black Widow (1954) - John Amberly

Cry Vengeance (1954) - Roxey Davis

Ten Wanted Men (1955) - Howie Stewart

The Road to Denver (1955) - Sam Mayhew

At Gunpoint (1955) - Bob Dennis

Stranger at My Door (1956) - Clay Anderson

Dakota Incident (1956) - Frank Banner

Thunder Over Arizona (1956) - Tim Mallory

The Burning Hills (1956) - Jack Sutton

Between Heaven and Hell (1956) - Pvt. Swanson - Co. G

The Human Barrier (1957) - Capt. Gene Lipton

No Road Back (1957) - John Railton

The Tall T (1957) - Billy Jack

Day of the Badman (1958) - Howard Hayes

Plunderers of Painted Flats (1959) - Joe Martin

Comanche Station (1960) - Frank

The Rifleman (1960, TV Series) - Brud Evans

Stark Fear (1962) - Gerald Winslow

The Virginian (1963 episode A Portrait of Marie Valonne) - Sgt. Bohannon (1965) - The Brazos Kid

(1969 episode) Price of Love - foreman

Showdown (1963) - Caslon

Combat! (1963 episode - "Night Patrol") - Billy Joe

Bullet for a Badman (1964) - Pink

Combat! (1964 episode - "The Imposter") - Sgt. Morgan

The Outer Limits (1964 episode - "Expanding Human") - Dr. Roy Clinton

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) - Ollie Weaver

’’Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’’ (1966 episode - “The Day the World Ended”) - Senator William Dennis

Combat! (1967 episode - "Entombed") - Lt. Karl Mauer

"Patterns of Force" (Star Trek episode, 1968) - Deputy Führer Melakon

"The Way to Eden" (Star Trek episode, 1969) - Dr. Rota Sevrin

Tiger by the Tail (1970) - Deputy Sheriff Laswell

Starbird and Sweet William (1973) - Ranger

Helter Skelter (1976, television movie) - Judge Older

The Greatest (1977) - Major

The Incredible Hulk (1979) - Dr. Robert Stanley

Showdown at Eagle Gap (1982) - Alexander Kirk (final film role)

In 1943, a 12-year-old boy actor stunned Broadway audiences with his portrayal of a German youth indoctrinated into nazism. Brought to the US by an unsuspecting uncle, he soon threatens the family, then the whole community.

The play was Tomorrow, the World!; the actor, Skip (then Skippy) Homeier, whom I admired from a young age, and who has died aged 86. In 1944, he revisited the role for the Hollywood film version. It would define much of his subsequent career, with villains and neurotics filling his early CV.

Born George Vincent Homeier in Chicago, he was still a child when his parents, Ruth Francher and George Homeier, moved to New York. There, aged six, young Skippy began working in radio.

In his 20s he lacked the boy next door appeal of a Tab Hunter, but shone in meaty character roles – the town bully in The Gunfighter (1950), the edgy marine in Halls of Montezuma (1951), the albino hitman of Cry Vengeance (1954).

Westerns, in particular, became his stock in trade. Among them, Ten Wanted Men with Randolph Scott (1955); Stranger at My Door; Thunder Over Arizona; and The Burning Hills (all 1956); two more with Scott – The Tall T (1957) and Comanche Station (1960); and two with America’s war hero Audie Murphy – Showdown (1960) and Bullet for a Badman (1964).

By now a regular face on TV, Skip featured in hit shows including Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Virginian and Rawhide. In 1960, he took the lead in the detective series Dan Raven. Set on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, the show was abandoned after 13 episodes owing to competition from the more famous 77 Sunset Strip and Rawhide, both playing on the same night.

Unexpected cult status came, following roles in the original Star Trek series as the Nazi-like Melakon in Patterns of Force (1968), then the insane Dr Sevrin in The Way to Eden (1969). Another significant role was as Judge Charles Older in Helter Skelter, a 1976 TV movie about the Charles Manson murders.

Later cinema films included The Greatest (1977), with Muhammad Ali, and Quell & Co (1982), after which Skip retired, aged only 50. For years Trekkies urged him to appear at conventions, but Skip declined all offers.

I met him several times in 1956 when he was filming in London, and was impressed by his modest, friendly manner, so unlike the roles for which he was best known to film fans.

His wife Della Sharman, whom he married in 1963, survives him, as do his two sons, Peter and Michael, from his marriage in 1951 to Nancy Van Noorden Field, which ended in divorce.

The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated terms include teenage actor or teen actor, an actor who reached popularity as a teenager.

Famous earlier examples include Elizabeth Taylor, who started as a child star in the early 1940s in productions like National Velvet before becoming a popular film star as an adult in movies.

Many child actors find themselves struggling to adapt as they become adults, mainly due to typecasting. Macaulay Culkin and Lindsay Lohan are two particular famous child actors who eventually experienced much difficulty with the fame they acquired at a young age. Some child actors do go on to have successful acting careers as adults; notable actors who first gained fame as children include Mickey Rooney, Kurt Russell, Jodie Foster, Christian Bale, Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman, and Scarlett Johansson. Other child actors have gone on to successful careers in other fields, including director Ron Howard, politicians Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński, and singer Jenny Lewis.

Regulation

In the United States, the activities of child actors are regulated by the governing labor union, if any, and state laws. Some projects film in distant locations specifically to evade regulations intended to protect the child. Longer work hours or risky stunts prohibited by California, for example, might be permitted to a project filming in British Columbia. US federal law "specifically exempted minors working in the entertainment business from all provisions of the child labor Laws."[citation needed] Any regulation of child actors is governed by disparate state laws.

California

Due to the large presence of the entertainment industry in Hollywood, the state of California has some of the most explicit laws protecting child actors. Being a minor, a child actor must secure an entertainment work permit before accepting any paid work. Compulsory education laws mandate that the education of the child actor not be disrupted while the child is working, whether the child actor is enrolled in public school, private school or even home school. The child does their schoolwork under the supervision of a studio teacher while on the set.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a child actor is defined as someone under school leaving age.[1] Before a child can work, they require a performance license from their Local Education Authority as well as a licensed chaperone; a parent can only chaperone their own child, and a chaperone's duties include acting in loco parentis and record arrival and departure time from the work place, the time a child is working, their breaks and the amount of tutoring.[1][2] A child requires three hours minimum of tutoring daily and a lesson must be a minimum of 30 minutes to count towards the total and with regards to 16 and 17-year-old in further education, considerations are made in regards to their studies.[3]

There are regulations and guidance to safeguard all actors under the age of 18; OFCOM guidance states a child's health and safety, well being and welfare is paramount in television production and factors such as their age, maturity and life experiences can affect their performance.[4] OFCOM also advises that broadcasters undertake risk assessments, consider seeking expert advice and follow best practice.[4]

Issues

Ownership of earnings

In the United States before the 1930s, many child actors never got to see the money they earned because they were not in charge of this money. Jackie Coogan earned millions of dollars from working as a child actor only to see most of it squandered by his parents. In 1939, California weighed in on this controversy and enacted the Coogan Bill, which requires a portion of the earnings of a child to be preserved in a special savings account called a blocked trust.[5] A trust that is not actively monitored can also be problematic, however, as in the case of Gary Coleman, who after working from 1974, later sued his adoptive parents and former business advisor for $3.8 million over misappropriation of his trust fund.[6][7]

Competitive pressure

Some people[who?] also criticize the parents of child actors for allowing their children to work, believing that more "normal" activities should be the staple during the childhood years. Others[who?] observe that competition is present in all areas of a child's life—from sports to student newspaper to orchestra and band—and believe that the work ethic instilled or the talent developed accrues to the child's benefit.[citation needed]

The child actor may experience unique and negative pressures when working under tight production schedules. Large projects which depend for their success on the ability of the child to deliver an effective performance add to the pressure.[citation needed]

Ethel Merman, who several times worked in long-running stage productions with child actors, disliked what she eventually saw as their over-professionalization—"acting more like midgets than children"—and disapproved of parents pushing adulthood on them.[8]

After the childhood success

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Jodie Foster in 1974

There are many instances of troubled adult lives due to the stressful environment to which child actors are subjected. It is common to see a child actor grow up in front of the camera, whether in films, TV shows or both. However, it is not uncommon to see child actors continue their careers throughout as actors or in a different professional field.

Jodie Foster started acting at age 3, becoming the quintessential child actor during the 1970's with roles in films such as Tom Sawyer (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Bugsy Malone (1976), The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), and Freaky Friday (1976). A child prodigy, Foster received her first Academy Award nomination at age 13 and later took a sabbatical from films to attend Yale University. She made a successful transition to adult roles, winning two Academy Awards for Best Actress before the age of 30, and starring in several successful and acclaimed films such as The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Nell (1994), Maverick (1994), Contact (1997), and The Brave One (2007), thus establishing herself as one of the most accomplished and sought-after actresses of her generation. She has also ventured into directing and her directing credits include films such as Little Man Tate (1991), Money Monster (2016) and television shows such as House of Cards, Orange Is the New Black, and Black Mirror.

Now adults, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, the three leads of the acclaimed Harry Potter film series (2001–11), starred in every installment in the series, and have since continued to act in film, television, and theater in their early 30's.

Dakota Fanning rose to prominence after her breakthrough performance at age 7 in the film I Am Sam (2001). Her performance earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination at age 8 in 2002, making her the youngest nominee in SAG history. She later appeared in major Hollywood productions, in such acclaimed blockbuster films as Man on Fire (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Charlotte's Web (2006), Hounddog (2007), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Coraline (2009), The Twilight Saga film series (2009–12), The Runaways (2010), and The Motel Life (2012). Fanning's younger sister, Elle Fanning also rose to prominence as a child actress, having appeared in many films since before she turned 3.

Miranda Cosgrove, known mainly for her role as Megan on the Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh as a child, gained more attention for her role as a teenager in the show iCarly. Since the end of the show she has been featured in other roles, including as the voice of Margo in the Despicable Me franchise. Once she was of age, she decided to pursue a college degree in film at the University of Southern California.[9]

Late actress Shirley Temple became a public figure and diplomat, beginning in the 1960's. Some of her duties included representing the United Nations, and becoming a U.S. ambassador in countries such as Ghana and Czechoslovakia.[10]

Mary-Kate Olsen, who shared the role of Michelle Tanner with her twin sister Ashley on the ABC sitcom Full House, was treated for an eating disorder, deemed anorexia, but Ashley remained less troubled. In an article with the magazine Marie Claire, Mary-Kate expressed the bittersweet nature of the twins' childhood. "I look at old photos of me, and I don't feel connected to them at all," she said. "I would never wish my upbringing on anyone... but I wouldn't take it back for the world." The twins eventually retired from acting to pursue a full-time career in the fashion industry, which, to this day, is continuously successful with an estimated net worth of approximately $100,000,000.

Mandy Moore is one of the child stars to have success as an adult with the start of her growing career in 1993.

Drew Barrymore, a former child star, started acting at age 3. During her childhood she battled with drugs, but recovered and currently continues to act.

Natalie Portman took a small break in acting to get a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Harvard University before continuing her career as an actress.

Rider Strong, known as "Shawn Hunter" in Boy Meets World, was educated at Columbia University and now runs a successful blog and has published a graphic novel.[11] Neil Patrick Harris started his career as a child actor in Doogie Howser, M.D. He continues to act in television, films and theater. Harris is now a cult figure icon.

Jonathan Lipnicki, known mostly for the Stuart Little films, now successfully competes in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.[11] Sara Gilbert is known for her role on Roseanne and later created and served as a co-host for CBS's The Talk. Also from Roseanne, Michael Fishman continued to work in film, but behind the scenes and has since been nominated for an Emmy for the work he did in Sports Science. Both Gilbert and Fishman returned for the later series based on Roseanne, The Conners, with Gilbert also serving as an executive producer and guiding the series through its transition after Roseanne Barr was fired after the tenth season of the revived Roseanne.[11] Kirsten Dunst and Lacey Chabert both made the transition from a child actress to an adult actress with a rough patch including depression. After a stay in a rehabilitation center, Dunst was able to recover and continue her career. She proves that the pressures of growing up under the spotlight may not come without repercussions.[12]

Roddy McDowall, who had a long and outstanding career including as the regular star of the Planet of the Apes series; Micky Dolenz, who started his career as a child star in the 1950s, grew up to be a musician of the successful 1960s pop group The Monkees, which had its own successful television show; Ron Howard, who, in addition to being the star of both of the long running The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days television series, became an Academy Award-winning director in adulthood; Elijah Wood, who continued his career successfully into adulthood, starring as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings film series and starring as Ryan Newman in the television series Wilfred.

Other careers

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Many actors and child actors careers are often quite short. Many actors, out of personal choice, that start their careers as child actors decide not to pursue the same careers as adults. Shirley Temple, for example became a public figure and diplomat. Peter Ostrum, appearing in his only role, the lead character of Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory became a large-scale veterinarian surgeon. While Jenny Lewis, formerly of film Troop Beverly Hills in 1989, is a well-known singer-songwriter indie rock musician.

In Poland, former child actors and identical twin brothers Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński became successful politicians, at one time Lech being president and Jarosław the prime minister.