Jack Wild was still a teenager when he was nominated for an Academy Award for playing the Artful Dodger in the 1968 film of the Charles Dickens tale Oliver. Wild went on to star in the oddly fantastical Saturday-morning series H.R. Pufnstuf and the spinoff movie Pufnstuf (1970, with Mama Cass Elliot). He was briefly a teen heartthrob, even releasing a music album (Everything's Coming Up Roses, 1971). Wild lost years of his later career to alcoholism, but he sobered up and returned to acting in the 1990s. In 2002 he had his larynx (voice box) and tongue surgically removed after being diagnosed with cancer of the mouth; the operation left him unable to speak. He died of the disease in 2006.
Wild had a small role as one of Robin Hood's merry men in the 1991 Kevin Costner movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves... H.R. Pufnstuf was created by Sid and Marty Krofft, who also produced the Saturday-morning shows Land of the Lost and Lidsville... In a 2005 interview with the BBC, Wild said his cancer was caused by his previous habits: "What I learned very quickly was that my lifestyle had made me a walking time bomb. I was a heavy smoker and an even heavier drinker and apparently together they are a deadly mixture."
A veteran of theater, film, and television, singer/dancer/actor Jack Wild got his start in the entertainment business at a very young age. Born just outside Manchester, England, Wild and his family moved to London in 1960 when he was eight years old. About three years later, he was discovered playing soccer in a local park by an agent for a stage school. In the next few years, he began to make his mark in local theater. After a minor part in a film with Carol White and Terence Stamp called Poor Cow and numerous theater roles, in 1967 Wild auditioned for and got the role of the Artful Dodger in the film version of the stage hit Oliver! He had appeared in a London stage version. In the film, Wild performed the delightful "Consider Yourself" and received a 1969 Academy Award Best Supporting Actor nomination for the role.
Based on the success of Oliver!, Wild was offered the role of Jimmy in Sid & Marty Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf. The Wizard of Oz-like Saturday morning live action/puppets children's show premiered on NBC-TV on September 6, 1969. Kellogg's Cereals in association with Capitol Special Products offered the soundtrack to the show on a 45 EP, available from the back of the cereal boxes for a small fee and the right number of box tops. The series was so popular that a film version, Pufnstuf, was released by Universal Pictures in the summer of 1970. Besides the TV cast, also in the film were Martha Raye and Mama Cass Elliot, who gave a marvelous performance on a song called "Different." Wild is featured on "If I Could." The songs for the film were written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and the Fox-produced soundtrack was released by Capitol Records.
Around the same time he was hired by the Kroffts, Wild signed a contract with Capitol Records. His first solo record, The Jack Wild Album, was released in late 1969. The album and the first single, "Some Beautiful" b/w "Picture of You," were primarily sold by mail order through the teen magazines Tiger Beat and Sixteen, which spotlighted Wild as a teen idol. During promotional tours, Wild would appear on local TV kids shows and lip-synch the songs. He also appeared on The Red Skelton Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Kraft Music Hall Show, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, The Bing Crosby Christmas Show, The Banana Splits, The Liberace Show, The Engelbert Humperdink Show, and the Kroffts' shows, Live at the Hollywood Bowl and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. Wild's other albums are Everything's Coming Up Roses (Buddah, 1971) and Beautiful World (Buddah, 1972).
Wild was reunited with his Oliver! co-stars Mark Lester in Melody (1971) (includes a score by the Bee Gees) and Ron Moody in Flight of the Doves (Columbia, 1971). He also appeared in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991) with Kevin Costner, Basil (1991) with Christian Slater, and English and European movies.
After a bout with alcoholism and becoming a born-again Christian, Wild continued to perform English theater while collaborating on his autobiography. He died on March 2, 2006, from oral cancer, which had first been diagnosed in 2000. ~ Ed Hogan, All Music Guide
It was at the premiere of the 1968 film version of Oliver! that he met brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, who thought Wild would make a good lead for a show they were developing
called H.R. Pufnstuf. Wild starred in this American family TV series that launched in 1969, and also in the movie "Pufnstuf", which
was made prior to the television series but released theatrically afterward. He also embarked on a recording career, cutting one
album for Capitol Records and two for Buddah
Records in the early 1970s.
Excessive drinking at an early age derailed Wild's career. Sobering up in 1988, he
returned to the big screen in a few minor roles, such as in the 1991 Kevin Costner film
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He was also reported to be
developing a TV situation comedy with Suzi Quatro around the same time, but those plans
never materialised in an actual series. For the most part, though, Wild spent the remainder of his career working in theatre.
Wild died on 2 March, 2006, aged 53, after a long battle with
oral cancer, which he claims was caused by his alcoholism and smoking. Diagnosed with the disease in 2000, he
underwent surgery in July 2004 and had part of his tongue and both vocal cords removed. Because of this surgery, he had lost his speech and had to communicate through his
wife. He met wife Clare Harding in a stage production of Cinderella, Jack played one of the ugly step sisters.
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