hellboy76 wrote:I agree with many on this list..
I thought River Phoenix was good in Stand By Me.
Oddly enough Christina Ricci in The Addams Family sticks out as incredibly believable.
Maybe Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz? I think she was 15 or 16.
I listed Ricci, but Phoenix was c. 16 and Garland was c. 17. The point I was getting at with this thread is that with younger children, until the 60s, they and/or the directors were never good enough so they either fudged the role with older children, or they put up with hyper-sappy performances--e.g. Shirley Temple. Sometimes, like with Garland, they did both, though other aspects of such films makes us filter our memories through rose colored glasses. There's a universe of difference twixt 12 & 20.