The term child actor is generally applied to a child A child is a human between the stages of birth and puberty. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. "Child" may also describe a relationship with a parent or authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also acting Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play. Most early sources in the West that examine the art of acting discuss it as part of rhetoric in motion pictures Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects or television Television is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic ("black and white") or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission. The word is derived from mixed Latin, but also to an adult The term adult has at least three distinct meanings. It can indicate a biologically grown or mature person. It may also mean a plant, animal, or person who has reached full growth or alternatively is capable of reproduction, or the classification legal adult, generally determined as a person who has attained the legally fixed age of majority; as who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion the latter is also called a former child actor. Closely associated is teenage actor, an actor who reached popularity as a teenager Adolescence (lat adolescere, is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological (i.e. pubertal), social, and psychological changes, though the biological or physiological ones are the easiest to measure objectively. Historically, puberty has been heavily.
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Regulation of child actors
The activities of child actors are regulated by the governing labor union, if any, and state and federal laws. Longer work hours or risky stunts, prohibited in California, for example, might be permitted to a project filming in British Columbia. Some projects film in remote locations specifically to evade regulations intended to protect the child. In the United States, federal law "Specifically exempted minors working the Entertainment Business from all provisions of the Child Labor Laws." Any regulation of child actors is governed by disparate state laws.
California
Due to the large presence of the entertainment industry in California, it has some of the most explicit laws protecting child actors. Being a minor, a child actor must secure a work permit before accepting any paid performing work. Compulsory education laws mandate that the education of the child actor not be disrupted while the child is working. Whether a child actor is enrolled in public school, private school, or home school, the child does schoolwork under the supervision of a set teacher while on the set.
Finally, the hours a child actor may work are limited. Generally, stricter time limits are imposed for younger actors. A very young infant The term infant derives from the Latin word infans, meaning "unable to speak." It is typically applied to children between the ages of 1 month and 12 months . However, definitions vary between birth and 3 years of age might be allowed "under the lights" only a few minutes a day. It is common in television production for the role of a young child to be portrayed by identical twins Twins are two offspring resulting from the same pregnancy, usually born in close succession. They can be the same or different sex. Twins can either be monozygotic or dizygotic (DZ, colloquially "fraternal" or "non-identical") or triplets to reduce each child's time on set. When a child turns 18, the legal limits on work time are lifted.
Issues involving child actors
Ownership of earnings
Using children in motion pictures has been criticized as exploitation, particularly since some prominent child actors never got to see the money they earned. Jackie Coogan John Leslie "Jackie" Coogan was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family (TV show, 1964-1966). In the interim, he shocked the United States by suing his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked became a millionaire while still a child but almost all of his money was used by his parents.
Some have defended this saying that the child directly benefited from the lifestyle the earnings made possible or that the child would not have achieved stardom without a significant investment of time and effort by the parents. Others argue that it is unfair for the child to have to support the family when the parents are capable, as this tends to invert the parent child relationship.
In 1939, California weighed in on this controversy by enacting the original Coogan Law, amended at various times since, which requires a portion of the earnings of a child actor to be preserved in a special savings account called a blocked trust.
Competitive pressure
Some people also criticize the parents of child actors for allowing their children to work, believing that more “normal” activities should be the staple during the childhood years. Others observe that competition is present in all areas of a child’s life—from sports to student newspaper to orchestra and band—and believe that the work ethic instilled, or the talent developed accrues to the child’s benefit.
The child actor may experience unique and negative pressures when working under tight production schedules. Large projects which depend for their success on the ability of the child to deliver an effective performance add to the pressure.
Effects
Many actors' careers are short-lived, and this is also true of child actors. Peter Ostrum Peter Gardner Ostrum is an American veterinarian and former child actor whose only film role was Charlie Bucket in the 1971 motion picture Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, for example, is now a successful large-animal veterinarian after a starring role in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Most notably, Shirley Temple Shirley Temple is an American actress and public servant. She began her acting career in 1932 with one-reelers and skyrocketed to superstardom in 1934 with the feature film, Bright Eyes. Thereafter, she starred in twenty-four films for Twentieth Century-Fox and became top box-office draw in a Motion Picture Herald poll four years in a row, from 193 became a successful public figure and diplomat A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organisation. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and friendly relations, eventually becoming U.S. Ambassador to Ghana The Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa which borders Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King," and was the source of the name "Guinea" (via French Guinoye), which has been used to refer to the West African coast (, then United States Department of State The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc. in other countries. It is administered by the Secretary of State, the office currently held by Hillary Chief of Protocol under the Nixon Administration Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States (1969–1974) and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States (1953–1961), and then in the late 1980s U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992. From 1939 to 1945 the state did not have de facto existence, due to its forced division and partial incorporation into Germany, but the Czechoslovak government-in-exile nevertheless. Brandon Cruz Brandon Edwin Cruz is an American former child actor and currently a punk rock musician and also works in television production. In the early 1970s, the freckled-faced Cruz came to prominence by playing Bill Bixby’s charming and conniving son, Eddie Corbett, in the comedy-drama The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. Cruz and Kristina Holland are the is a successful punk rocker Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. They created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs,, after a co-starring role in The Courtship of Eddie's Father The Courtship of Eddie's Father is a American television comedy-drama based on the popular 1963 movie of the same name that had gained some respect in theaters, and it was also based on a book written by Mark Toby. It was directed by James Komack and tells the story of a widower which starred Bill Bixby who was also a young publisher, and Brandon, Jenny Lewis Jennifer Diane Lewis is an American singer, musician, and actress, formerly of Troop Beverly Hills Troop Beverly Hills is a 1989 motion picture filmed in the United States by Weintraub Entertainment Group. It was directed by Jeff Kanew and starred Shelley Long, Craig T. Nelson, Betty Thomas, Mary Gross, Shelley Morrison, a host of young stars including Tori Spelling, Carla Gugino, Jenny Lewis, Emily Schulman, Ami Foster, and Kellie Martin, and, is a well-known indie rock Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. The term is often used to describe the means of production and distribution of independent underground music, as well as the style of music that was first associated with this means of production. Indie rock artists are known for placing a musician, and Kirk Cameron Kirk Thomas Cameron is an American actor best-known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy Growing Pains, as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor. Recently, he portrayed the lead roles in the Left Behind film series and in the 2008 drama film, Fireproof is a successful minister In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform clergy functions such as teaching of beliefs; performing services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community, after a co-starring role in Growing Pains Growing Pains is an American television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from 1985 to 1992.
Tragic and well publicized examples exist in which a child actor falls into self-destructive behavior. However, it has not been demonstrated that this hazard occurs more frequently in child actors than in the general population. One study by Lisa Rapport, Ph.D. concluded that
"the present findings also indicate that the environment of the entertainment industry is not necessarily toxic to normal development. Instead, the results support the well-established theory that good parenting serves as a buffer for life stress."[1]
Listings of child actors and singers
- Lists of current and former child actors by nationality Categories: Lists of actors by nationality | Child actors by nationality | Lists of children
- Child singer A child singer is a child who has a career as a singer. Child singers and people who have been child singers include:
References
- ^ Lisa Rapport, Ph.D. The Relationships Between Professional Experience, Parenting History, and Adult Adjustment boys, Wayne State University Wayne State University is located in Detroit, Michigan, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center and is composed of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 350 major subject areas to 33,000 graduate and undergraduate students. The WSU main campus encompasses 203 acres linking 100 education and research buildings in the heart of Detroit. It also
External links
- A Minor Consideration - a non-profit organization A nonprofit organization is an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals . Examples of NPOs include charities (i.e. charitable organizations) , trade unions, and public arts organizations. Most governments and government agencies meet this definition, but in created by former child actor Paul Peterson, in order to support and educate young performers and their families
- The Young Hollywood Hall of Fame - a website honoring hundreds of child actors
- Children In Film - a website designed to connect parents and industry professionals in order to positively employee minors in entertainment.
- Child Actor (from "Boy in the Plastic Bubble") Online Interview - Insightful Interview from a former child actor
- Interview with Barry Williams, Former Child Star
- Child Actor / Addict Mike Hammett - Dennis Carrington (Wheeler) Another World (TV series) Another World was a television soap opera that ran on the NBC network from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It was created by legendary serial creator Irna Phillips along with William J. Bell, and was produced by Procter & Gamble Productions in studios located in Brooklyn 600+ episodes 1972-1978. Now CCDC - counselor
- On Location Education A source for finding studio teachers and traveling teachers for child actors.
- Former Child Star Central - Blog devoted to news/issues/updates concerning former child stars.
Categories: Child actors | Acting Categories: Performing arts | Theatrical professions | Drama | Theatre | Childhood
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