Jack Wild

Wild was born into a working-class family in Royton, Lancashire. In 1960, at the age of eight, with his parents and his elder brother Arthur, he moved to Hounslow, in Middlesex, where he got a job helping the milkman, which paid about five shillings.

While playing football with his brother in the park, he was discovered by theatrical agent June Collins, mother of Phil Collins. Collins enrolled both Jack and Arthur at the Barbara Speake Stage School, an independent school in Acton, west London.

By 1973, aged 21, he was an alcoholic. After exhausting his remaining fortune, Wild lived with his retired father for a few years.[5] His alcoholism caused three cardiac arrests and resulted in numerous hospital stays.[5] He was diagnosed with diabetes on 14 March 1983. His alcoholism ruined both his career and marriage to Gaynor Jones, who left him in 1985 because of his excessive drinking.[1] During the mid-1980s, he often drank three to four bottles of vodka a week; he typically drank half a bottle of vodka and two bottles of wine every day.[6] He later admitted his alcoholism was so debilitating that he was incapable of performing any kind of work.[7]

Wild eventually became sober on 6 March 1989, after joining the support group, Alcoholics Victorious.[7]

He returned to the big screen in a few minor roles, such as in the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and as a peddler in Basil (1998). For the most part, he spent the remainder of his career working in theatre. His last major appearance was as the male lead, "Mouse", in Tayla Goodman's rock musical Virus. The show ran for two weeks at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, in 1999. For his final film appearance he had a minor role in Moussaka & Chips (2005), in which he once again worked with Ron Moody.[8]

Wild first met Welsh-born actress Gaynor Jones when they were around 12 years old at the Barbara Speake stage school. After he left in 1966, he did not see her again until Christmas of 1970. They married on 14 February 1976.[9] She left him in 1985 because of his chronic drinking.[1] He met his second wife, Claire L. Harding, when he was working with her in Jack and the Beanstalk in Worthing.[1] They married in Bedford in September 2005.[10]

In 2001, Wild was diagnosed with oral cancer, blaming the disease on his drinking and smoking habits.[11] He underwent chemotherapy immediately, and had his tongue and voicebox removed in July 2004, leaving him unable to speak.[1] Wild had to communicate through his wife Claire for the rest of his life.[1]

Wild died just before midnight on 1 March 2006, following a long battle with cancer.[12] He is buried in Toddington Parish Cemetery, Bedfordshire.[13]

At the time of his death, he and his wife, Claire, had been working on his autobiography.[14] She said: 'All the material was there when Jack died, it just needed rearranging, editing, and, in certain sections, writing out from transcripts Jack and I made as we recorded him talking about his life.'[15] The book, It's a Dodger's Life, was published in 2016 with a foreword by Pufnstuf co-star Billie Hayes, an afterword by Clive Francis, and an epilogue by Wild's wife.[15]

• List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees

• Wild, Jack. Autobiography: It's A Dodger's Life, Fantom Films 2016. Hardback edition ISBN 978-1-78196-266-4
• Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 296. ISBN 978-0859551786
• Dye, David. Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914-1985. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1988, p. 239. ISBN 9780899502472

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jack Wild.

• Jack Wild Official Website
• Jack Wild at the British Film Institute
• Jack Wild at IMDb