Take a closer look at some of Hollywood's top-tier talent at the beginning of their careers.

Child Stars, Then and Now

Take a closer look at some of Hollywood&#39;s top-tier talent at the beginning of their careers.

Get a closer look at the most searched stars on IMDb right now.

These Stars Are on the Rise

Anny Ondra and Cyril Ritchard in Blackmail (1929)

Hannah Jones and Cyril Ritchard in Blackmail (1929)

Wally Cox and Cyril Ritchard in Mister Peepers (1952)

Margalo Gillmore, Kathleen Nolan, Cyril Ritchard, Norman Shelley, Norman Shelly, Joseph Richard Stafford, and Robert Harrington in Peter Pan (1955)

Margalo Gillmore and Cyril Ritchard in Peter Pan (1955)

Margalo Gillmore, Cyril Ritchard, Norman Shelly, and Joseph Richard Stafford in Peter Pan (1955)

Mary Martin, Cyril Ritchard, and Norman Shelly in Peter Pan (1955)

Gilda Gray and Cyril Ritchard in Piccadilly (1929)

John Longden, Cyril Ritchard, Jameson Thomas, and King Hou Chang in Piccadilly (1929)

Gilda Gray, Cyril Ritchard, and Jameson Thomas in Piccadilly (1929)

Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard in Peter Pan (1955)

Maureen Bailey, Sondra Lee, Kent Fletcher, Edmund Gaynes, Luke Halpin, Benedict Herrman, David Komoroff, Mary Martin, Jacqueline Mayro, Cyril Ritchard, Norman Shelly, Bill Snowden, Joey Trent, and Carson Woods in Peter Pan (1960)

Legendary for his preening, prancing, delightfully playful villain Captain Hook on the award-winning stage (as well as TV) opposite America's musical treasure Mary Martin, beloved musical star Cyril Ritchard had a vast career that would last six decades, but "Peter Pan" would become his prime legacy. Born in Australia just before the turn of the century, he was educated at St. Aloysius College and Sydney University wherein he slyly sidestepped a parental-guided career in medicine for entertainment, participating in numerous college productions that quickly got him "hooked." He began professionally in the chorus line of The Royal Comic Opera Company and quickly progressed to juvenile leads. A subsequent pairing with the already-established theatre actress Madge Elliott in 1918 proved successful, and the musical twosome eventually married in 1935. Together they would go on to become known as "The Musical Lunts" by their acting peers performing in scores of plays and revues together. Ritchard specialized in playing slick, dandified villains in musical comedy and developed a potent reputation of being a man of many talents. Not only directing and staging Broadway's finest, he became a renown performer of various operas and led many productions as such. Shortly before his wife's death of bone cancer in 1955, Ritchard ventured into TV infamy by repeating his Tony and Donaldson award-winning portrayal of Hook in Peter Pan (1955). He continued to earn acclaim and/or honors with such classic stage productions as "Visit to a Small Planet" (Tony-nominated), "The Pleasure of His Company" (Drama League award, Tony-nominated), "The Roar of the Greasepaint...the Smell of the Crowd" (Tony-nominated), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Sugar," the musical version of the classic Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot (1959) in which Ritchard played the Joe E. Brown role. Lesser regarded when it comes to film, he performed in the early Hitchcock classic Blackmail (1929) and made his last movie with the musical Half a Sixpence (1967) with Tommy Steele. While performing as the Narrator in a stage production of "Side by Side by Sondheim" in November 1977, Ritchard suffered a heart attack and died one month later. A one-of-a-kind talent, his nefarious, narcissistic humor was a career trademark that culminated in the role of a lifetime -- one that will certainly be enjoyed by children young and old for eons to come.

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Cyril Ritchard

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