Years active 1934-1969 Name Terry Kilburn | Role Child actor | |
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Full Name Terence Kilbourne Born 25 November 1926 (age 97) ( 1926-11-25 ) London, England, UK Education University of California, Los Angeles Movies Goodbye - Mr Chips, A Christmas Carol, Fiend Without a Face, The Adventures of Sherlo, National Velvet Similar People Charles Nolte, Kathleen Lockhart, Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Lynne Carver | ||
Meet Minnesota's Terry Kilburn: Hollywood's 1st Tiny Tim
Terence E. Kilburn (born 25 November 1926), known for his acting work prior to 1953 as Terry Kilburn, is an English-American actor. Born in London, he moved to Hollywood in the U.S. at the age of 10, and is best known for his roles as a child actor, in films such as A Christmas Carol (1938) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) in the late 1930s and the early 1940s.
Contents
- Meet Minnesotas Terry Kilburn Hollywoods 1st Tiny Tim
- Early life
- Screen career
- Life after Hollywood
- Filmography
- References
Early life
Kilburn was born in London in 1926, to working-class parents. He did some unpaid acting as a young child, and an agent encouraged him to go to Hollywood. Kilburn and his mother immigrated to the U.S. in 1937, and his father arrived the following year. A talent scout for MGM discovered him rehearsing for Eddie Cantor's radio show, and he was cast in the British-set film Lord Jeff (1938).
Screen career
Known for his innocent, dreamy, doe-eyed look, Kilburn achieved fame at the age of 11 portraying Tiny Tim in the 1938 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film version of A Christmas Carol, and also as four generations of the Colley family in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). He also played leading roles in two films which starred Freddie Bartholomew: Lord Jeff (1938) and Swiss Family Robinson (1940). He was featured in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) with Basil Rathbone.
In addition to Lord Jeff (1938), Kilburn worked alongside Mickey Rooney in Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939), A Yank at Eton (1942), and National Velvet (1944). In 1946 he was in Black Beauty, and in 1947 and 1948 he was in four back-to-back Bulldog Drummond films, as Seymour, a reporter.
After 1952 he was credited on screen as Terence Kilburn. His final feature film role was a small part in Lolita (1962). Between 1951 and 1969, he was also in nearly a dozen teleplays, television movies, and television series episodes.
Life after Hollywood
From 1970–1994, Kilburn was artistic director of Oakland University's Meadow Brook Theatre in Rochester, Michigan. Meadow Brook Theatre is Michigan's only LORT theatre. It presents classic plays, comedies and musicals, and is known for its annual production of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, adapted by Kilburn's partner Charles Nolte.
Kilburn resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His partner of over 50 years, actor Charles Nolte, died in January 2010.