The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child Biologically, a child is generally 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, 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 A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a story conveyed with moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry 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 An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age. In human context, the term has other subordinate meanings associated to social and legal concepts, for example a legal adult is a legal concept for a person who has attained the age of 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 is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood (age of majority), but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage. According to Erik Erikson's stages of human development, for example, a young adult is generally a person between the ages.
Contents |
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 law.
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 an entertainment 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 studio 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 An infant or baby is the very young offspring of humans. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate refers to an infant in the first 28 days of life (from birth up to 4 weeks after birth, less than a month old). The term "newborn" includes premature infants, 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 A twin is generally defined as offspring produced in the same pregnancy and/or born at the same birth process, although people with unusually high genetical similarity also may be called twins although they may not be born at the same time , such as with monozygotic (MZ, colloquially "identical") twins. Offspring that are not genetically or triplets to reduce each child's time on set. When the 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, Jr. 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 1960s sitcom The Addams Family. In the interim, he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal 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 The original Bill was passed in 1939 by the State of California in response to the plight of Jackie Coogan, who earned millions of dollars as a beloved child actor only to discover, upon reaching adulthood, that his parents had spent almost all of his money. Since then, it has been revised a few times — most recently on January 1, 2004, 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 Ostrum (born 1957/1958 in Dallas, Texas) is an American large animal veterinarian and former child actor whose only film role was Charlie Bucket in the 1971 motion picture Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. A native of Cleveland, Dr. Ostrum practices in Glenfield, New York and lives in nearby Lowville with his wife Loretta, and two, 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, or Shirley Jane Temple is an American film and television actress, autobiographer, and public servant. She began her screen career in 1932 at the age of three, and, in 1934, skyrocketed to superstardom in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Academy Award in February 1935, and became a successful public figure and diplomat A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. 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 located in West Africa. It is bordered by 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 is derived from the ancient Ghana Empire, then United States Department of State The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries. The Department was created in 1789 and was the first executive department established Chief of Protocol under the Nixon Administration Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States from 1969–1974 and was also the 36th Vice President of the United States (1953–1961). Nixon was the only President to resign the office and also the only person to be elected twice to both the Presidency and the Vice Presidency, and then in the late 1980s U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia 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 Nazi Germany, but the Czechoslovak. 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 American comedy film. Produced by Weintraub Entertainment Group and directed by Jeff Kanew, it 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 numerous, is a well-known indie rock Indie rock is a genre of rock music, and a means of producing that music, that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. It is rooted in earlier genres such as alternative rock, post-punk, and new wave 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 (1985–1992), as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor. In the 1980s and 1990s, Cameron appeared in dozens of television shows and in the films Like Father Like Son and Listen to Me 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 about an upper-middle class family with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC 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]
See also
- 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 a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 350 major subject areas to over 31,000 graduate and undergraduate students. It is currently the third largest university in the state of Michigan
External links
- A Minor Consideration - a non-profit organization A non-profit 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 employ 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 is a television soap opera that ran on the NBC network from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 seasons. It was created by 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.
- Child Actors - The Sullivan Brothers are identical triplet child actors.
Categories: Child actors | Acting Categories: Performing arts | Theatrical professions | Drama | Theatre | Childhood
|
Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:17:21 GMT+00:00
The Hindu Sona stresses that it was not the child actor category and they competed against the best in the business. Casting Sarita Choudhury and getting Zakir ... Movie Preview : For Real GlamSham
500px x 400px | 68.90kB
[source page]
Simmons College These kids were energetic and fun to shoot
