Frankie Darro (born Frank Johnson, Jr.; December 22, 1917 – December 25, 1976) was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his role as Lampwick, the unlucky boy who turns into a donkey in Walt Disney's second animated feature, Pinocchio (1940). In early credits, his last name was spelled Darrow.[1]
Frankie Darro was born on Saturday, December 22, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois, as Frank Johnson, Jr. His parents, Frank Johnson, Sr. and his wife Ada, were known as The Flying Johnsons, an acrobatics and tightrope walking act with the Sells Floto Circus; it was a profession that his father attempted to train him in, and he cured Frankie's fear of heights by having him walk on a length of tightrope wire, gradually raising the height of it until his son had mastered the trick.
In 1922, while the circus was in California, his parents divorced, and their circus act ended along with their marriage. The growing film industry, however, found a use for a small child who could do his own stunts, and the young Johnson, renamed "Frankie Darro", appeared in his first film at the age of six.
In 1931, Darro was featured in director William A. Wellman's major success The Public Enemy. This led to frequent assignments at Warner Bros., including Mervyn LeRoy's Three on a Match (1932) and The Mayor of Hell (1933), in which he was the principal character. Director Wellman cast him as the lead in Darro's most important role during the 1930s, Wild Boys of the Road, an indictment of teens vagabonding across America during the Depression. From then on, Darro was usually cast as a pint-sized tough guy, although he also played wholesome leads in mysteries and comedies.
Frankie Darro was arguably the best juvenile actor in Hollywood, as reflected by his constant employment in the 1930s. Producer Nat Levine of Mascot Pictures valued him: he starred in six adventure serials from 1931 to 1935, with his salary increasing with his popularity: he earned $1,000 a week for The Vanishing Legion, $2,000 a week for The Lightning Warrior, $3,000 a week for The Devil Horse, $4,000 for The Wolf Dog, and $5,000 a week for Burn 'Em Up Barnes.[2] Darro was reunited with western star Harry Carey in two of the serials; Carey and Darro had worked together in silent features. Darro might have continued as a serial star, but Levine's Mascot studio was bought out by Herbert J. Yates, who created Mascot's successor Republic Pictures. The cost-conscious Yates opted not to meet Darro's established salary. Darro signed instead with producer Maurice Conn of Ambassador Pictures, where he starred in a series of modestly budgeted action features through 1937.
In 1938, Darro joined Monogram Pictures to star in a series of action melodramas. Darro's flair for comedy gradually increased the laugh content in these films. By 1940, Monogram hired Mantan Moreland to play his sidekick. The Frankie Darro series was so successful that Monogram used it as a haven for performers whose own series had been discontinued: Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, and Keye Luke joined Darro and Moreland in 1940, and Gale Storm was added in 1941.
Darro served in the US Navy Hospital Corps during World War II. He contracted malaria while enlisted. Upon his return to civilian life, Monogram welcomed him back and cast the perennially youthful Darro in its The Teen Agers campus comedies. When that series ended, the studio gave Darro four featured roles in its popular Bowery Boys comedies, including a co-starring role in Fighting Fools (1949). This was the last film in which he played a lead; thereafter he accepted smaller roles and did stunt work for other actors in various films. Darro's last assignment for Monogram was doubling for Leo Gorcey in Blues Busters in 1950.
Darro's recurring malaria symptoms caused him to increase his alcohol intake for pain management, and this affected his career. As film and TV roles became fewer, Darro opened his own tavern, naming it "Try Later," after the response he most often received when he asked Central Casting for work. His new occupation proved unwise, however, given his heavy drinking. By the mid-1950s, he had become too risky for producers to hire steadily.
Darro is probably best known to modern audiences for two films in which he isn't even seen: Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940, as the voice of Lampwick), and Forbidden Planet (1956, as one of the actor/operators inside the now iconic 7-foot-tall "Robby the Robot").[3] He was fired shortly after an early scene because of his having consumed a five-martini lunch prior to the scene being shot; he nearly fell over while attempting to walk while inside the expensive prop.[4][5]
Gloske, John. Tough Kid: The Life and Films of Frankie Darro, Lulu, 2008, ISBN978-0557003815.
Twomey, Alfred E. and Arthur F. McClure. The Versatiles: A Study of Supporting Character Actors and Actresses in the American Motion Picture, 1930-1955, South Brunswick, New York, 1969.
Katchmer, George A. A Biographical Dictionary of Silent Film Western Actors and Actresses, McFarland, 2002, pp. 85-86.
Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, pp. 87-88.
Dye, David. Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914-1985. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1988, pp. 50-51.
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