McLean, a former newspaper reporter, had previously authored and published Maine Street: Faces and Stories from a Small Town (2009) with Down East Books. Ī combination of events in 2011 persuaded her to revive the project, including "an explosion" of information and worldwide interest on the internet, the encouragement from her daughter, Jackie Lee, a college senior and writer, and in 2012 finally locating and conducting a series of interviews with deWilde's widow. About 75 important people in deWilde's life, some now deceased, contributed to the project including family members and friends, schoolmates, colleagues Paul Newman, Julie Harris, Patrick Wayne, Patricia Neal, Chuck Connors, Helen Hayes and others. McLean's manuscript had been a completed work for more than two decades having been put in repose because Brandon, ".never reached the cult status of other dead stars like James Dean", according to agents and publishers. 'I never forget it because I had never stolen anything. 'We were so poor we went to the grocery store and were actually taking bags of beans and were putting them inside our clothes to get something to eat,' recalls Janice. As reported on the website, "McLean's 2012 interviews with deWilde's elusive widow, Janice Gero, illuminate the dark period of Brandon's life with a candor and honesty heretofore unknown. Through personal interviews, public records, published accounts and deWilde's own words, McLean weaves her story from the time prior to his parents meeting through the aftermath and void left after his death. A second marriage in 1972, turning drug-free, and a return to the stage were all cut short when deWilde was killed in a motor vehicle accident at age 30. First married in 1963 at age 21, the union lasted until 1969, producing one son, Jesse. Well into his late 20s his youthful features had him performing roles as teenagers and college students. In a twist of the child actor's curse, deWilde's problems arose not from a lack of work, but rather from a continuation of it. He continued into adulthood with similar successes, until an obsession with music and a dependence on drugs brought his career to a self-imposed standstill. McLean writes how deWilde achieved fame as the "tow-headed, gap-toothed boy" who starred in the films The Member of the Wedding (1952) and Shane (1953), the latter of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination, at age 11, for uttering the immortal words "Shane, come back" to Alan Ladd. It is the only published biography of Brandon deWilde since his death in 1972.Īll Fall Down, The Brandon deWilde Story covers mostly chronologically the life of Brooklyn-born Andre Brandon deWilde, growing up in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York, then moving to Manhattan with his parents after a series of events catapulted him from a typical seven-year-old American school boy to a national phenomenon as a child prodigy theatre and film actor that eventually earned him the tag of "one of America's most heartrending cultural icons". It is McLean's first written, but second published, work. He plays John Henry, Joey Starrett, and Joey Adams, respectively.All Fall Down, The Brandon deWilde Story is a 2012 biography written by Patrisha McLean and published by Faces, Incorporated. In the film "The Member of the Wedding", a 1952 film noir drama, directed by Fred Zinnemann "Shane", a 1953 Western, produced and directed by George Stevens and "Night Passage", a 1957 Western, directed by James Neilson, Brandon de Wilde performs as a young boy in an appropriate role for a boy his age. This film was both a big theatrical and commercial success. Greenhill, Lana Wood as young Debbie Edwards, Robert Lyden as Ben Edwards, and Beulah Archuletta as Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky (Look). as Brad Jorgensen, Antonio Moreno as Emilio Gabriel Fernández y Figueroa, Hank Worden as Mose Harper, Walter Coy as Aaron Edwards, Dorothy Jordan as Martha Edwards, Pippa Scott as Lucy Edwards, Patrick Wayne as Lt. Jorgensen, Ken Curtis as Charlie McCorry, Henry Brandon as Chief Cicatriz (Scar), Harry Carey Jr. Samuel Johnson Clayton, John Qualen as Lars Jorgensen, Olive Carey as Mrs. Others in the movie include Vera Miles as Laurie Jorgensen, Ward Bond as Rev. Ethan is accompanied by his adoptive nephew, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter). He is looking for his niece, Debbie Edwards (Natalie Wood) she has been abducted by a band of Comanches. Stars include John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran, Ethan Edwards. The film was based on the 1954 novel "The Searchers" by Alan Le May. Brandon de Wilde didn't have an acting role in the 1956 film "The Searchers", an epic Western, directed by John Ford.
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