Take a look at the IMDb staff picks for the best movies and series coming in August.

Staff Picks: What to Watch in August

Check out our calendar of everything coming to streaming during the month of August.

August 2025 TV and Streaming Premiere Dates

Hall H panels, activations, and more can't-miss moments from Comic-Con 2025.

Photos We Love: San Diego Comic-Con 2025

Hall H panels, activations, and more can&#39;t-miss moments from Comic-Con 2025.

Spencer Tracy, Howard Da Silva, and Darryl Hickman in Keeper of the Flame (1942)

Spencer Tracy and Darryl Hickman in Keeper of the Flame (1942)

Darryl Hickman in Keeper of the Flame (1942)

Gene Tierney and Darryl Hickman in Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Darryl Hickman in Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Jeanne Crain, Darryl Hickman, Cornel Wilde, and Chill Wills in Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Gene Tierney, Darryl Hickman, and Cornel Wilde in Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Robert Young, Darryl Hickman, and Marsha Hunt in Joe Smith, American (1942)

Wallace Beery, Darryl Hickman, and Marjorie Main in Jackass Mail (1942)

Wallace Beery and Darryl Hickman in Jackass Mail (1942)

Robert Young and Darryl Hickman in Joe Smith, American (1942)

Darryl Hickman in Joe Smith, American (1942)

James Arness, Amanda Blake, Darryl Hickman, Bert Rumsey, and Dennis Weaver in Gunsmoke (1955)

Darryl Hickman and John Kerr in Tea and Sympathy (1956)

David Hasselhoff, Darryl Hickman, and Jeremy Jackson in Baywatch (1989)

Darryl Hickman, Mercedes McCambridge, Ruth Roman, and Rhys Williams in Lightning Strikes Twice (1951)

Gabriel Dell, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Darryl Hickman, and Bernard Punsly in Mob Town (1941)

Anne Gwynne, Billy Halop, and Darryl Hickman in Mob Town (1941)

Pat O'Brien, Myrna Dell, and Darryl Hickman in Fighting Father Dunne (1948)

Darryl Hickman and Dwayne Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959)

Darryl Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959)

Shirley Temple and Darryl Hickman in A Kiss for Corliss (1949)

Mickey Rooney and Darryl Hickman in Men of Boys Town (1941)

David Niven, Shirley Temple, Darryl Hickman, and Tom Tully in A Kiss for Corliss (1949)

Vincent Price, Darryl Hickman, Pamela Lincoln, and Skeleton in The Tingler (1959)

Vincent Price, Darryl Hickman, and Pamela Lincoln in The Tingler (1959)

Wallace Beery, Darryl Hickman, Marjorie Main, and J. Carrol Naish in Jackass Mail (1942)

James Cardwell, Darryl Hickman, and Damian O'Flynn in The Devil on Wheels (1947)

Louis Adlon, Edwin Brian, Darryl Hickman, Carole Landis, Onslow Stevens, and Roland Varno in Mystery Sea Raider (1940)

Dean Stockwell, Scotty Beckett, Donn Gift, and Darryl Hickman in The Happy Years (1950)

Dean Stockwell, Leo G. Carroll, Mason Alan Dinehart, David Bair, Scotty Beckett, Danny Mummert, Donn Gift, Darryl Hickman, Eddie LeRoy, and Jerry Mickelsen in The Happy Years (1950)

Dean Stockwell and Darryl Hickman in The Happy Years (1950)

Grace Bradley, Darryl Hickman, Brandon Hurst, and Mantan Moreland in Sign of the Wolf (1941)

Darryl Hickman and Ben Welden in The Lone Ranger (1949)

Although younger brother Dwayne Hickman (1934 - 2022) is probably the better-remembered sibling today with his cult following as TV's favorite love-struck teenager Dobie Gillis and a few "Beach Party" films, it is Darryl Hickman who is certainly the more prolific brother in the movies. At one time, he was deemed one of Hollywood's most talented child stars of World War II and post-war film.

Hickman was born in Hollywood, California on July 28, 1931, to Milton Hickman, an insurance salesman, and his wife, Katherine. Taking dance classes at age 3, Darryl's looks and talent were discovered by his dance school director who eventually had him placed at age 5 with a child troupe (Meglin School for Kiddies).

Paramount Studios subsequently took notice and signed him to a contract, making his unbilled film debut as Ronald Colman's son in the classic adventure The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). Darryl then appeared briefly in a second Colman film, If I Were King (1938). He grew up within the studio system and on the studio sets. Fellow classmates included Jackie Cooper.

Appearing in the Bing Crosby musical biopic The Star Maker (1939), Crosby took notice of young Darryl's promise and referred him to his talent agent brother Everett Crosby. Everett was impressed as well, and took Darryl under his wing. Placed in the Paramount films Untamed (1940) and The Way of All Flesh (1940), the boy was eventually featured in his most prominent role, that of young, impoverished Winfield Joad in the classic film The Grapes of Wrath (1940). MGM quickly showed interest and bought out the boy's Paramount contract.

A popular loan-out child player, Darryl appeared in a "poverty row" version of one of Jack London's more popular adventure stories Sign of the Wolf (1941); appeared in 12-year-old Shirley Temple's last film for Fox Young People (1940); showed up in Universal's Mob Town (1941) and another Fox film Young America (1942). While at MGM, Darryl found himself working with the studio's top echelon of stars including Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor and Mickey Rooney. Notable in-house roles included that of "Flip" in Men of Boys Town (1941), "Johnny Smith" in Joe Smith, American (1942), "(young) Blackie" in Northwest Rangers (1942); "Jeb" in the Tracy/Hepburn drama Keeper of the Flame (1942), "Etienne" in Assignment in Brittany (1943), and as young "Lionel" in the classic "Americana" film The Human Comedy (1943).

Darryl progressed from child to juvenile parts with equal skill. He was featured in the role of WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker as a lad in the biopic Captain Eddie (1945) starring Fred MacMurray and also featuring brother Dwayne; played composer Ira as a teenager in the Gershwin story Rhapsody in Blue (1945); reunited with Shirley Temple in the "Corliss Archer" comedy Kiss and Tell (1945); played the ill-fated brother-in-law of evil Gene Tierney in the drama Leave Her to Heaven (1945); portrayed the younger version of Van Heflin in the film noir The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946); tangled with priest Pat O'Brien as a young troublemaker in the "Boy's Town"-like crime drama Fighting Father Dunne (1948); was upgraded to Shirley Temple's boyfriend in the light comedy A Kiss for Corliss (1949); played a prep school problem along with co-star Dean Stockwell in the comedy The Happy Years (1950) and a disturbed ranch caretaker along with equally disturbed older sister Mercedes McCambridge in Lightning Strikes Twice (1951).

Darryl attended the Immaculate Heart Grammar School in Los Angeles as well as the studio schools at Paramount and then MGM. In September 1951, the 20-year-old, who had grown unhappy and disenchanted with Hollywood and the studio system in its inability to protect child actors, abandoned his career and entered a monastery, the Passionist Seminary, with the intent on becoming a priest. Within a year, however, he left when he realized he was not cut out for a life in the priesthood.

Trying to regain his acting momentum proved challenging. He began on 50's TV with guest shots on such shows as "Sky King," "The Lone Ranger," "Annie Oakley," "Biff Baker, U.S.A., "Perry Mason," "Public Defenders," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Wanted: Dead or Alive," "Gunsmoke," "The Millionaire" and several anthology programs. He also guested on brother Dwayne's popular "Dobie Gillis" TV show. On the film front, he found featured roles in Destination Gobi (1953), Island in the Sky (1953), Prisoner of War (1954), Tea and Sympathy (1956), The Persuader (1957) and The Tingler (1959).

By the early 1960s, as film and TV offers began to dry up, Darryl wisely moved behind the scenes. Starting out as a TV writer, he eventually became a program executive. During the 1970s, he briefly attempted TV producing. In later years, he became a respected acting coach in Los Angeles. He made guest appearances on such 1960s/70s shows as "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color," "Dr. Kildare," "Love, American Style," "All in the Family" and "Maude," before finding an "in" with an abundance of 1980s animated voice work: Space Stars (1981), Pac-Man (1982), The Biskitts (1983), The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (1985) and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988). One of his last visible appearances was in a 1999 episode of "The Nanny."

Hickman married actress Pamela Lincoln, whom he first met on the film set of The Tingler (1959). They had two children, but divorced in 1982.

At the time of his death, he was married to production assistant Lynda Farmer Hickman.

Photos

Darryl Hickman

More from this person

More to explore

Recently viewed