Frank Coghlan Jr.(1916-2009)
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
The son of a railroad clerk/pro boxer, Frank Coghlan Jr. was born in
Connecticut and soon moved with his parents to California, where all
three did extra work in silent pictures. Freckle-faced Coghlan was soon
one of the era's most popular child actors, but with the advent of
sound (and the onslaught of adolescence) he was reduced to smaller
parts. After starring in the milestone serial
Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941),
Coghlan became a naval aviator in World War II. He later headed the
Navy's motion picture cooperation program (and other similar programs),
acting as liaison between the Navy and the Hollywood studios. When his
23-year active duty stint ended in 1965, he returned to acting in
movies and on television (where he had a supporting part in the pilot
of the "Captain Marvel"-like comedy series
Mr. Terrific (1967)). He wrote
his autobiography "because my kids just kept bugging me to do it", does
the occasional TV commercial, and is a popular figure at movie
conventions, where, to the amazement of the 80-ish "Junior", fans still
line up to meet Captain Marvel's alter ego.
