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Known for:	The Kid, Mesa of Lost Women, A Ford Story
Birth name:	John Leslie Coogan Jr.
Birthday:	26 October 1914, Los Angeles, California, USA

Son of Jack Coogan Sr. Brother of Robert Coogan Grandfather of actor Keith Coogan. The youngest self-made millionaire in history. In 1935, at age 21, he had the traumatic experience of losing his father, Jack Coogan Sr., and his best friend, actor Junior Durkin, when both were killed in an auto accident in the California mountains. Durkin died almost instantly at the scene, and Coogan, Sr., who had been driving, a few hours later at a local hospital. Jackie, though badly injured, was the sole survivor of the accident. He would later call it the single saddest day of his life. Although he eventually reconciled 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." Always considered his proudest moment his 1972 reunion with Charles Chaplin. After two decades of exile from the U.S., Chaplin returned to America in March of that year to receive the Handel Medallion in New York City and a special lifetime achievement Oscar in Hollywood. Coogan was one of several people on hand to greet Chaplin when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. After greeting the other members of the party with perfunctory handshakes, Chaplin, immediately recognizing Coogan (whom he hadn't seen in decades), warmly embraced him, saying, "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". When he was cast as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family, Coogan was fifty years old and nearly broke. After the show ended in 1966, he never lacked for work again, with numerous TV and film assignments. His contract with Metro earned him $1,000,000 per year. After money problems with his parents, he helped organise The Coogan Bill, which protected child actors from such abuse in the future. Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 116. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387 He was engaged to stunning actress Toby Wing in 1935. When approached for autographs while dating her he would often write inscriptions backward to impress her, more or less confusing the autograph seeker. They eventually broke up over differences in their temperaments, just adding to 1935 being probably the single worst year of his life given his father's death and mother's refusal to pay out his childhood earnings. During his service in the U.S. Army, in March 1944 he served in the China-Burma-India Theater as the pilot of a wood-and-canvas glider.

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