Chip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers took the world by surprise. The live-action reboot movie about the iconic 90s chipmunks was completely different from what many could’ve expected. But, perhaps what shook audiences the most, was Disney’s brilliant way to know how to make fun of themselves.
The success the movie had on social media was unprecedented and, as it happens nowadays with every single movie and series release, fans and netizens didn’t hesitate to dissect every single scene and reference. In that process, it was pointed out what many thought was a tasteless joke in one of the main characters, the villain of the film, a middle-aged Peter Pan, who resorted to a criminal life after being snubbed by the industry.
Fans pointed out the similitudes between Sweet Pete (as Peter Pan is named in the movie) and the tragic life of the actor that voiced and served as an animation model for the original Peter Pan film of 1953, Bobby Driscoll. Seeing the terrible and short life Driscoll lived, many thought the reference was too dark for the famous family animation studio. However, as Akiva Schaffer, director of the film, pointed out, it was just a coincidence. But who was Bobby Driscoll, Disney’s darling, and why did they snub him just like Sweet Pete in the film?
Who was Bobby Driscoll?
Robert Cletus Driscoll was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1937. He was born in a pretty normal household, but he was nothing but regular; he had something in it. Bobby was the son of a salesman and a school teacher, but his life would take the first twist when his father got sick after many years of handling asbestos in his job. He was advised to relocate and change his activities.
In 1943, the Driscoll family relocated to Los Angeles, and as it used to happen back in the Golden Age of Hollywood, young Bobby Driscoll would be discovered quite soon. One good day, while the five-year-old was having a haircut, the barber, who was the father of an actor, suggested he should be taken out to one of the big movie studios. He thought Bobby had something unique in him that would make him a hit. And he wasn’t wrong.
Bobby got an audition at MGM for a movie called Lost Angel through his barber’s son, and he got it. Bobby Driscoll was a rough diamond, the industry was ready to polish.
Rise of a star
Driscoll’s work in Lost Angel secure him several movies in the upcoming years. He made nine films in just three years and soon his life would take another twist. His adorable freckled face and bubbly personality were a magnet for the studios. In 1946, when he was just seven, he was chosen to star in the now-controversial Disney film Song of the South.
He soon became “the first human being signed for Disney Productions.” By the time, Disney was thriving in post-war America, he became the embodiment of what childhood was supposed to look like. Even Walt Disney used to say he was the “living embodiment of his youth.” With Disney, Bobby Driscoll starred in movies like Treasure Island and So Dear to My Heart. His presence in the growing studio even got him an Oscar (called the Juvenile Academy Award) in 1950. Driscoll was dubbed Disney’s live-action Mickey Mouse. But his big breakthrough (and drop) was yet to come.
In 1953, when he was 16 years old, Bobby Driscoll became the body and voice of no other than Peter Pan. Being the embodiment of Walt Disney’s youth himself, there was no other who could inspire the company’s version of the classic boy who never grew up. Driscoll was the animation model and voice of Peter Pan, which became one of the company’s most beloved and iconic animated films.
Snubbing their star
Right after doing what would be his biggest Disney project, Driscoll started experiencing what all of us do, adolescence. His voice started to change, he started growing facial hair, and what would be his biggest sin, he developed acne. He stopped being the adorable star and the studio could not see any use for him looking like that.
Mercilessly, in 1953, Disney decided to cancel his contract and other studios weren’t really interesting in collecting what Disney had just gotten rid off. It was the end of Driscoll’s celebrity life and it would take a toll on his life. According to Hollywood biographer, Marc Eliot, it wasn’t only a matter that Driscoll “aged.” Around that time, Howard Hughes bought RKO, and thus became the owner of Disney studios. The mogul, whom you might know if you saw The Aviator, wasn’t a fan of Driscoll nor any other child actor. He thought they were too precocious and annoying; and thus, Hughes wanted nothing to do with Driscoll.
A new life?
After being snubbed by Disney, Bobby Driscoll tried to start over in the industry, landing a couple of gigs as a guest star in some tv series. Around that time, he left his parent’s house and moved to New York to study acting and start from scratch. He enrolled at Stanford but ended up dropping school because he was constantly bullied for being the Disney star.
At 19-years-old, he met a girl named Marilyn Jean Rush in Manhattan. After only five months of dating, the couple eloped to Mexico; the couple had a son and a daughter, but after only three years of marriage, the couple split. It seemed everything in Bobby Driscoll’s life was meant to end after a short period.
After his marriage failed, he got a grip on substances. Driscoll was arrested multiple times for substance possession and abuse, as well as robbery and fraud. In 1961, he was committed to Chino Men’s Prison for rehabilitation. When he was released he tried making a living as a carpenter but soon, around 1965, Driscoll became amazed by the Beat Generation and soon began hanging out with many artists including the iconic and also problematic Andy Warhol. Bobby even gave art a try and created a couple of small dark artworks.
Tragic ending
The star’s life ended quite soon in 1968. He was found dead in an abandoned building in New York’s East Village. It was determined that he had heart failure due to substance use. Since he was not carrying an ID, his body was marked as unclaimed and buried in a mass grave. His mother found out about his son’s demise a year later months after reporting him as missing in newspapers. Disney found out about their once-biggest star’s passing four years later during the rerelease of Song of the South in 1972.
There, in an unknown grave, lies Bobby, the boy who literally would’ve hoped to never grow old. The first child actor whose hopes were risen, to only be disposed of once he looked different. Chip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers, shows that Disney has learned to really mock themselves, and Sweet Pete’s character is a commentary on the star system that ruined so many actor’s lives, but the company still fails to recognize the damage they did on Driscoll and others that followed.
Petitions have been made to add him to their hall of fame, but the company has simply preferred to keep him in oblivion. Even when the film didn’t reference Bobby Driscoll on purpose and it was all a coincidence, it’s a great way to remember him and how ruthless the entertainment business can be.
