Billy Chapin
Encyclopedia
Billy Chapin is an American
former child actor
, known for a considerable number of screen- and TV-performances from 1943 to 1959 and best remembered for both his roles as the “Diaper-manager” Christie Cooper in the 1953 family feature The Kid from Left Field
, starring Dan Dailey
, Anne Bancroft
and Lloyd Bridges
and little John Harper in Charles Laughton
's 1955 Film Noir
classic The Night of the Hunter
, opposite acting legends Robert Mitchum
and Lilian Gish.
He is the brother of former child actors, Lauren Chapin
, known as Kathy “Kitten” Anderson from the TV series Father Knows Best
(1954–60) and Michael Chapin, likewise successful child performer of the 1940s and 1950s.
He is also an uncle of professional singer Summer-Healey Chapin, his sister's daughter.
, California
, he was the second of three children of Roy Chapin, a bank manager and Marquerite Alice Barringer, who later became a kind of personal coach for all of her children's acting careers.
, 1944, starring Gary Cooper
, and had just five months later another uncredited baby-role, in Marriage Is a Private Affair, starring Lana Turner
. Another bit-role in The Cockeyed Miracle
, 1946, followed before he started acting professionally in 1951 in a supporting role in the Broadway
stage
musical
Three Wishes for Jamie
, which, while passably successful, toured the West Coast in the summer of the same year. When the play moved to New York City in early 1952 after essential changes, concerning dramatization of the play and replacements within the original West Coast cast had been made,
it
finally became a considerable success and earned him the N.Y. Drama Critics Award
as the most promising young actor of the year.
's 1938 Broadway
play, On Borrowed Time
at the Calanese Theatre, but his first real screen role he landed just one year later as the "Diaper Manager" Christie Cooper, the lead role of the 1953 family release The Kid from Left Field
, starring Dan Dailey
, Anne Bancroft
and Lloyd Bridges
.
It was followed by three successive episodes of Jack Webb
's Dragnet
and two other television shows, before he portrayed Brian "Gadge" Robertson, the bright grandson of a fictive astro-scientist in the science fiction
B-flick Tobor The Great
, 1954.
Two smaller screen appearances then fell into line, - one in a Film Noir
, entitled Naked Alibi
, 1954, with Sterling Hayden
and Gloria Grahame
and another bit-role in the famous screen musical
There's No Business Like Show Business
, again starring Dan Dailey
with Donald O'Connor
and Marilyn Monroe
, - before the boy gained his next memorable screen attentions as the young son of historic clergyman Peter Marshall
in A Man Called Peter
and Victor Mature
's screen son in his second Film Noir
: Violent Saturday
, - both of which were released in 1955.
In between he continued to appear in standard television series such as Waterfront, The Millionaire, and My Friend Flicka
, and various TV-theaters, -anthologies and -dramas.
When Charles Laughton
personally cast Billy Chapin for the role of young John Harper in his 1955 film classic The Night of the Hunter
, the boy was already considered an "acting technician" among the child performers of his time. After a private meeting with him in his Hollywood home, Laughton told Davis Grubb
, the author of the original story: "What I want is a flexible child, and the boy is exactly that." Later, Laughton publicly offered praise especially for "...the strength of [Chapin's] innate ability to understand the construction of a scene, its impact and its importance."
Vintage sources claimed that Laughton might find it difficult to direct Chapin, as well as Sally Jane Bruce
, who played his younger sister (Pearl Harper), but contemporary sources and re-discovered archival material on the production of The Night of the Hunter prove that, aside from a few intergenerational tiffs, the old man and the boy got along wonderfully, even if, according to these sources, Robert Mitchum
, who played the bogus preacher Harry Powell, in fact took over some directing tasks.
Though now considered a classic
, The Night of the Hunter was a critical and commercial failure when released, "because of its lack of the proper trappings."
Nevertheless, in 1992, the United States Library of Congress selected the picture for preservation in the National Film Registry
.
, starring Richard Egan
, but from then on, however, his career decreased solely to television, where it eventually ended late in 1959 in an episode of the long-running family series Fury
(1955–60).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
former child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
, known for a considerable number of screen- and TV-performances from 1943 to 1959 and best remembered for both his roles as the “Diaper-manager” Christie Cooper in the 1953 family feature The Kid from Left Field
The Kid from Left Field
The Kid from Left Field is a 1953 baseball film starring Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, and Billy Chapin. The film marked the reunion of Dailey and director Harmon Jones who had teamed up at 20th Century Fox a year earlier in another baseball film, the autobiographical The Pride of St. Louis.The film...
, starring Dan Dailey
Dan Dailey
Daniel James Dailey Jr. was an American dancer and actor.-Early life and career:Born in New York City on December 14, 1915, to James J. and Helen Dailey, both born in New York City. He appeared in a minstrel show when very young, and appeared in vaudeville before his Broadway debut in 1937 in...
, Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....
and Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958...
and little John Harper in Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
's 1955 Film Noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
classic The Night of the Hunter
The Night of the Hunter (film)
The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American thriller film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. The film is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Laughton...
, opposite acting legends Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
and Lilian Gish.
He is the brother of former child actors, Lauren Chapin
Lauren Chapin
Lauren Chapin, born May 23, 1945 in Los Angeles, California, is an American former child actress, most remembered for her role as the youngest child "Kathy Anderson" in the television show Father Knows Best, which was produced between 1954 and 1960. Chapin was awarded five Jr. Emmy's for Best...
, known as Kathy “Kitten” Anderson from the TV series Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s.-Radio:...
(1954–60) and Michael Chapin, likewise successful child performer of the 1940s and 1950s.
He is also an uncle of professional singer Summer-Healey Chapin, his sister's daughter.
Life and career
Born William McClellan Chapin on December 28, 1943, in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, he was the second of three children of Roy Chapin, a bank manager and Marquerite Alice Barringer, who later became a kind of personal coach for all of her children's acting careers.
Early roles and Broadway
Chapin debuted on the screen at the age of only some weeks, uncredited as the Baby Girl in Casanova BrownCasanova Brown
Casanova Brown is a 1944 American romantic comedy film directed by Sam Wood, and starring Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, and Frank Morgan. Written by Thomas Mitchell , Floyd Dell, and Nunnally Johnson, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards: for Best Score , Best Sound, Recording Casanova...
, 1944, starring Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, and had just five months later another uncredited baby-role, in Marriage Is a Private Affair, starring Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
. Another bit-role in The Cockeyed Miracle
The Cockeyed Miracle
The Cockeyed Miracle is a 1946 fantasy film about a ghost who, with the help of his father , stops his best friend from leaving his family penniless. The ghosts are played by Frank Morgan and Keenan Wynn, the villain by Cecil Kellaway...
, 1946, followed before he started acting professionally in 1951 in a supporting role in the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Three Wishes for Jamie
Three Wishes for Jamie
Three Wishes for Jamie is a musical with a book by Charles O'Neal and Abe Burrows and music and lyrics by Ralph Blane.Based on O'Neal's 1949 novel The Three Wishes of Jamie McRuin, the fantasy focuses on the title character, a young Irishman who, when offered three wishes by the Queen of the...
, which, while passably successful, toured the West Coast in the summer of the same year. When the play moved to New York City in early 1952 after essential changes, concerning dramatization of the play and replacements within the original West Coast cast had been made,
it
finally became a considerable success and earned him the N.Y. Drama Critics Award
New York Drama Critics' Circle
The New York Drama Critics' Circle is made up of 24 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services based in the New York City metropolitan area. The organization was founded in 1935 at the Algonquin Hotel by a group that included Brooks Atkinson, Walter Winchell, and Robert Benchley...
as the most promising young actor of the year.
From The Kid from Left Field to A Man Called Peter
This stage success might have earned him his role as the grandson in the 1952 TV adaption of Paul OsbornPaul Osborn
Paul Osborn was an American playwright and screenwriter best known for writing the screen adaptation of East of Eden as well as South Pacific, The Yearling, The World of Suzie Wong and Sayonara....
's 1938 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
play, On Borrowed Time
On Borrowed Time
On Borrowed Time is a 1939 film about the role death plays in life, and how humanity cannot live without it. It is adapted from Paul Osborn's 1938 Broadway hit play. The play, based on a novel by Lawrence Edward Watkin, has been revived twice on Broadway since its original run.Set in small-town...
at the Calanese Theatre, but his first real screen role he landed just one year later as the "Diaper Manager" Christie Cooper, the lead role of the 1953 family release The Kid from Left Field
The Kid from Left Field
The Kid from Left Field is a 1953 baseball film starring Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, and Billy Chapin. The film marked the reunion of Dailey and director Harmon Jones who had teamed up at 20th Century Fox a year earlier in another baseball film, the autobiographical The Pride of St. Louis.The film...
, starring Dan Dailey
Dan Dailey
Daniel James Dailey Jr. was an American dancer and actor.-Early life and career:Born in New York City on December 14, 1915, to James J. and Helen Dailey, both born in New York City. He appeared in a minstrel show when very young, and appeared in vaudeville before his Broadway debut in 1937 in...
, Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....
and Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958...
.
It was followed by three successive episodes of Jack Webb
Jack Webb
John Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
's Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
and two other television shows, before he portrayed Brian "Gadge" Robertson, the bright grandson of a fictive astro-scientist in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
B-flick Tobor The Great
Tobor the Great
Tobor the Great is a 1954 science fiction film, written by Carl Dudley & Philip MacDonald, and directed by Lee Sholem. It stars Charles Drake, Karin Booth, and Billy Chapin. The film was released on DVD on May 13, 2008 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment.Dr...
, 1954.
Two smaller screen appearances then fell into line, - one in a Film Noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, entitled Naked Alibi
Naked Alibi
Naked Alibi is a 1954 black-and-white film starring Sterling Hayden. Portions of the film, considered film noir, were shot in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.-Plot:...
, 1954, with Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
and Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
and another bit-role in the famous screen musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
There's No Business Like Show Business
There's No Business Like Show Business (film)
There's No Business Like Show Business is a 20th Century Fox musical film that was released on December 16, 1954. The title is borrowed from the famous song in the stage musical Annie Get Your Gun....
, again starring Dan Dailey
Dan Dailey
Daniel James Dailey Jr. was an American dancer and actor.-Early life and career:Born in New York City on December 14, 1915, to James J. and Helen Dailey, both born in New York City. He appeared in a minstrel show when very young, and appeared in vaudeville before his Broadway debut in 1937 in...
with Donald O'Connor
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...
and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, - before the boy gained his next memorable screen attentions as the young son of historic clergyman Peter Marshall
Peter Marshall
Peter Marshall may refer to:* Peter Marshall , British author whose works include Demanding The Impossible: A History of Anarchism and Europe's Lost Civilization...
in A Man Called Peter
A Man Called Peter
A Man Called Peter is a 1955 American drama film directed by Henry Koster and starring Richard Todd. The film is based on the life of preacher Peter Marshall, who served as chaplain of the U.S. Senate late in his life, in an account written by his wife Catherine Marshall...
and Victor Mature
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature was an American stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky to an Italian-speaking father from the town Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol , Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, a cutler,...
's screen son in his second Film Noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
: Violent Saturday
Violent Saturday
Violent Saturday is a 1955 American crime drama directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Victor Mature, Lee Marvin, Richard Egan and Stephen McNally. The film, set in a mining town, depicts the planning of a bank robbery as the nexus in the personal lives of several townspeople.Prominent actors...
, - both of which were released in 1955.
In between he continued to appear in standard television series such as Waterfront, The Millionaire, and My Friend Flicka
My Friend Flicka (TV series)
My Friend Flicka is a 39-episode western television series set at the fictitious Goose Bar Ranch in Wyoming at the turn of the 20th century. The program was filmed in color but initially aired in black and white on CBS at 7:30 p.m. Fridays from February 10, 1956, to February 1, 1957. It was a...
, and various TV-theaters, -anthologies and -dramas.
The Night of the Hunter
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
personally cast Billy Chapin for the role of young John Harper in his 1955 film classic The Night of the Hunter
The Night of the Hunter (film)
The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American thriller film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. The film is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Laughton...
, the boy was already considered an "acting technician" among the child performers of his time. After a private meeting with him in his Hollywood home, Laughton told Davis Grubb
Davis Grubb
Davis Grubb was an American novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Born in Moundsville, West Virginia, Grubb wanted to combine his creative skills as a painter with writing and as such attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, the author of the original story: "What I want is a flexible child, and the boy is exactly that." Later, Laughton publicly offered praise especially for "...the strength of [Chapin's] innate ability to understand the construction of a scene, its impact and its importance."
Vintage sources claimed that Laughton might find it difficult to direct Chapin, as well as Sally Jane Bruce
Sally Jane Bruce
Sally Jane Bruce is an American former child performer, best known for playing little Pearl Harper in Charles Laughton's 1955 film noir The Night of the Hunter.-Life and career:...
, who played his younger sister (Pearl Harper), but contemporary sources and re-discovered archival material on the production of The Night of the Hunter prove that, aside from a few intergenerational tiffs, the old man and the boy got along wonderfully, even if, according to these sources, Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
, who played the bogus preacher Harry Powell, in fact took over some directing tasks.
Classic
The word classic means something that is a perfect example of a particular style, something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality. The word can be an adjective or a noun . It denotes a particular quality in art, architecture, literature and other cultural artifacts...
, The Night of the Hunter was a critical and commercial failure when released, "because of its lack of the proper trappings."
Nevertheless, in 1992, the United States Library of Congress selected the picture for preservation in the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
Tension at Table Rock and a fading career on TV
It's not known if that was the reason for which Chapin's final screen attention was just a year later as young Jody Burrows in the 1956 B-Western Tension at Table RockTension at Table Rock
Tension at Table Rock is a 1956 Technicolor Drama directed by Charles Marquis Warren, starring Richard Egan and Dorothy Malone. Wes Tancred is publicly vilified after killing a famous gunslinger who was a public hero.-Cast:...
, starring Richard Egan
Richard Egan (actor)
Richard Egan was an American actor. In some films he is credited as Richard Eagan.-Career:Born in San Francisco, California, Egan served in the United States Army as a judo instructor during World War II...
, but from then on, however, his career decreased solely to television, where it eventually ended late in 1959 in an episode of the long-running family series Fury
Fury (TV series)
Fury is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1955–1960, starring Peter Graves as Jim Newton , Bobby Diamond as Jim's adopted son, Joey Clark Newton, and William Fawcett as ranch hand Pete Wilkey...
(1955–60).
Personal life
In her own biography, his sister Lauren mentions him having had alcohol and drug problems in his twenties and thirties.Filmography (in order of release)
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | Casanova Brown Casanova Brown Casanova Brown is a 1944 American romantic comedy film directed by Sam Wood, and starring Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, and Frank Morgan. Written by Thomas Mitchell , Floyd Dell, and Nunnally Johnson, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards: for Best Score , Best Sound, Recording Casanova... |
The Brown's Baby Girl | uncredited |
| Marriage Is a Private Affair | The Baby | uncredited | |
| 1946 | The Cockeyed Miracle The Cockeyed Miracle The Cockeyed Miracle is a 1946 fantasy film about a ghost who, with the help of his father , stops his best friend from leaving his family penniless. The ghosts are played by Frank Morgan and Keenan Wynn, the villain by Cecil Kellaway... |
Boy | aka The Return of Mr. Griggs (US promotional title) aka Mr. Griggs Returns (UK) |
| 1953 | Affair with a Stranger Affair with a Stranger Affair with a Stranger is a 1953 American comedy-drama starring Jean Simmons and Victor Mature. It was directed by Roy Rowland, and was originally to be released as Kiss and Run.... |
Timmy | |
| The Kid from Left Field The Kid from Left Field The Kid from Left Field is a 1953 baseball film starring Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, and Billy Chapin. The film marked the reunion of Dailey and director Harmon Jones who had teamed up at 20th Century Fox a year earlier in another baseball film, the autobiographical The Pride of St. Louis.The film... |
Christie Cooper | ||
| 1954 | Tobor The Great Tobor the Great Tobor the Great is a 1954 science fiction film, written by Carl Dudley & Philip MacDonald, and directed by Lee Sholem. It stars Charles Drake, Karin Booth, and Billy Chapin. The film was released on DVD on May 13, 2008 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment.Dr... |
Brian "Gadge" Robertson | |
| Naked Alibi Naked Alibi Naked Alibi is a 1954 black-and-white film starring Sterling Hayden. Portions of the film, considered film noir, were shot in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.-Plot:... |
Petey | ||
| There's No Business Like Show Business There's No Business Like Show Business "There's No Business Like Show Business" is an Irving Berlin song, written for the musical Annie Get Your Gun and orchestrated by Ted Royal. The song, a slightly tongue-in-cheek salute to the glamor and excitement of a life in show business, is sung in the musical by members of Buffalo Bill's Wild... http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=92781&category=Full%20Credits |
Steve Donahue, aged 10 | ||
| 1955 | A Man Called Peter A Man Called Peter A Man Called Peter is a 1955 American drama film directed by Henry Koster and starring Richard Todd. The film is based on the life of preacher Peter Marshall, who served as chaplain of the U.S. Senate late in his life, in an account written by his wife Catherine Marshall... |
Peter John Marshall | |
| Violent Saturday Violent Saturday Violent Saturday is a 1955 American crime drama directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Victor Mature, Lee Marvin, Richard Egan and Stephen McNally. The film, set in a mining town, depicts the planning of a bank robbery as the nexus in the personal lives of several townspeople.Prominent actors... |
Steve Martin | ||
| The Night of the Hunter The Night of the Hunter (film) The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American thriller film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. The film is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Laughton... |
John Harper | ||
| 1956 | Tension at Table Rock Tension at Table Rock Tension at Table Rock is a 1956 Technicolor Drama directed by Charles Marquis Warren, starring Richard Egan and Dorothy Malone. Wes Tancred is publicly vilified after killing a famous gunslinger who was a public hero.-Cast:... |
Jody Burrows | |
On the Stage
| Year | Play | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951/1952 | Three Wishes for Jamie Three Wishes for Jamie Three Wishes for Jamie is a musical with a book by Charles O'Neal and Abe Burrows and music and lyrics by Ralph Blane.Based on O'Neal's 1949 novel The Three Wishes of Jamie McRuin, the fantasy focuses on the title character, a young Irishman who, when offered three wishes by the Queen of the... |
Kevin | N.Y. Drama Critics Award |
Television (in order of airing)
| Year | Show/Series/Episode | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Calanese Theatre - Episode: Winterset http://www.fandango.com/celanesetheatre:winterset_v8700/cast | unknown | originally aired on 31 October |
| 1952 | Calanese Theatre - Episode: On Borrowed Time | Grandson | originally aired on June 25 |
| 1953 | Dragnet (aka Badge 714) - Episode: The Big White Rat | unknown | originally aired on September 3 |
| Dragnet (aka Badge 714) - Episode: The Big Little Jesus | Joseph Hefferman | originally aired on December 24 | |
| 1954 | Dragnet (aka Badge 714) - Episode: The Big Children | unknown | originally aired on February 11 |
| A Letter To Loretta (aka The Loretta Young Show/Theatre) - Episode: The New York Story | Robbie Thorne | originally aired on February 28 | |
| Lux Video Theatre (aka Summer Video Theatre)- Episode: Pick Off The Litter | Jeremy | originally aired on April 8 | |
| Waterfront - Episode: The Rift | Teddy Herrick | originally airing unknown | |
| Waterfront - Episode: Sunken Treasure | Teddy Herrick | originally aired on August 28 | |
| Waterfront - Episode: Capt'n Long John | Teddy Herrick | originally aired on September 19 | |
| 1955 | Stage 7 - The Greatest Man In The World | Todd Jennings | originally aired on March 13 |
| Lux Video Theatre (aka Summer Video Theatre)- Episode: The Last Confession | Gaston | originally aired on September 1 | |
| Celebrity Playhouse - Episode: Day Of The Trial | unknown | originally aired on October 4 | |
| Cheyenne - Episode: Julesburg | Tommy Scott | originally aired on October 11 | |
| General Electric Theatre (aka G.E. Theatre)- Outpost At Home | unknown | originally aired on October 23 | |
| The Millionaire (aka If I Had A Million) - The Tom Bryan Story | Tom Bryan | originally aired on November 2 | |
| My Friend Flicka - Episode: Silver Saddle | unknown | originally aired on December 16 | |
| 1956 | Ford Star Jubilee - Episode: The Day Lincoln Was Shot | unknown | originally aired on February 1 |
| Fury (aka Brave Stallion) - Episode: The Test | unknown | originally aired on March 3 | |
| TV Readers Digest - Episode: Lost, Strayed And Lonely (aka It's A Wise Father)http://www.tv.com/tv-readers-digest/its-a-wise-father/episode/627568/summary.htmlhttp://ctva.biz/US/Anthology/TVReadersDigest.htm |
Christopher | originally aired on March 5 | |
| Climax! (aka Climax Mystery Theatre) - Episode: A Trophy For Howard Davenport | Billy | originally aired on June 28 | |
| Crossroads - Episode: Tenement Saint | Jerry | originally aired on December 14 | |
| 1957 | The Ford Television Theatre (aka Ford Theatre) - Episode: Ringside Seat | Billy Curran | originally aired on February 13 |
| Zane Grey Theatre (aka The Westeners)- Episode: Black Creek Encounter | Billy Morrison | originally aired on March 8 | |
| Panic! (aka No Warning - US second season title) - Episode: The Boy | Tommy Williams | originally aired on March 19 | |
| 1958 | Meet McGraw - Episode: Friend Of The Court http://ctva.biz/US/Crime/MeetMcGraw.htm | Tommy Cassidy | originally aired on February 25 |
| The Californians - Episode: The Marshall | Joey | originally aired on March 11 | |
| 1959 | Leave It To Beaver - Episode: The Grass Is Always Greener | Pete Fletcher | originally aired on January 8 |
| Frontier Justice - Episode: Black Creek Encounter http://www.tv.com/frontier-justice/black-creek-encounter/episode/117348/summary.html | Billy Morrison | originally aired on July 27 | |
| Fury (aka Brave Stallion) - Episode: The Rocketeers | Vic Rockwell | originally aired on December 5 | |
External links
- Billy Chapin at Turner Classic Movies
- Billy Chapin at BFI - Film and TV Database
- Billy Chapin at TV.com
- Official homepage of his sister Lauren