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Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins, Lionel Barrymore as Billy Bones in Victor Fleming's Treasure Island Jackie Cooper Dies: Youngest Best Actor Oscar Nominee, Skippy, The Champ A series of programmers followed, among them Two Bright Boys (1939), once again pairing up Jackie Cooper with Freddie Bartholomew — who by then was sliding fast as well — and What a Life (1939), with Betty Field. In the latter release, Cooper played Henry Aldrich, a role he would incarnate once again in Life with Henry (1941) before Jimmy Lydon took over. Cooper's film career was interrupted during World War II. When he returned in the late 1940s, he found jobs scarce, appearing in only three minor features. Two of those, Kilroy Was Here (1947) and French Leave (1948), co-starred another former child star named Jackie, Charles Chaplin's little pal in The Kid, Jackie Coogan — who also happened to be Robert Coogan's older brother. [...]...

Judy Garland's producer ex-husband Sid Luft has died. He was 89. Luft, whose credits include such classics as Kilroy Was Here and A Star Is Born, died on Thursday in Santa Monica, California, of an apparent heart attack, according to his longtime friend and business partner John Kimble. Luft and Garland were married in 1952 and divorced a tumultuous 13 years later. The marriage was Garland's third and Luft's second. They had two children together, Lorna in 1952 and Joey in 1955. Luft also was stepfather to Liza Minnelli, daughter of Garland's second husband, Vincente Minnelli. Luft was credited with helping resurrect Garland's career after she was released from her contract at film studio MGM in 1950 following a series of personal and professional crises. It was at MGM that she became a star and made such films as The Wizard Of Oz and Meet Me In St Louis. After he and Garland divorced, Luft married Patti Hemingway in 1970. That union also ended in divorce. In 1993, he married actress Camille Keaton, who survives him.