Born in Brooklyn, NY, the son of a stage manager and an actress, he made his Broadway debut at seven in The Member of the Wedding to great critical acclaim and was the first child ever to win the Donaldson Award for an outstanding stage performance. He played the role for 492 performances before repeating it in 1952 for the Hollywood screen version. He became internationally famous the following year as the child star of the classic Western SHANE (1953), a performance for which he was nominated for an Oscar®. In 1953-54 he starred in his own TV series, "Jamie," and later played youthful roles in a variety of films, memorably in BLUE DENIM (1959), ALL FALL DOWN (1962), and HUD (1963). He died at 30 as a result of injuries suffered in a traffic accident near Denver, where he was to appear in a stage production of Butterflies Are Free.  Nominated for Supporting Actor 1953: SHANE 1 nomination