He was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe at just 16, took fans on a trip with H. R. Pufnstuf, and he won hearts as a teen heartthrob. But Jack Wild’s life was never supposed to involve stardom. Was his story an unexpected fairytale with a happily ever after? Unfortunately, the truth is far more tragic.
There are many unexpected triumphs and heartbreaking downfalls in the life of the beloved Jack Wild – including why Phil Collins deserves a lot of thanks. Without further ado, time to revisit the sweet and sad life of Jack Wild.
How old was Jack Wild in ‘Oliver?’
You couldn’t have picked a better kid whose life paralleled his breakthrough film. Jack Wild had a very humble upbringing. His parents had very meager incomes and when Jack was just eight, he took a job helping the milkman. Even this only brought him in a whopping 5 shillings, which, in those days, was the equivalent of around a dozen or so pennies.
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Life as a star wasn’t remotely on Jack’s radar, even when that’s exactly the kind of rags-to-riches track that would turn his life around. In fact, Jack outright admitted, “I never wanted to be an actor. I saw myself as either a footballer or a doctor.”
So he just focused on sports and played football – or soccer for Americans – with his brother and another kid who wasn’t all that good at sports. That kid was named Phil Collins, and his mom worked as a theater agent. One day, she came to the park to pick Phil up, and she spotted the Wild boys and talked to them, asked if they ever thought about acting.
She ended up enrolling them in drama school and that was just the in Jack needed. By 1964, Jack was cast in Oliver – first the West End version, as Charley. His brother got the lead role. But jump ahead just four years, when Jack was 16, and he was singing his way into everyone’s hearts as the Artful Dodger.
Did Jack Wild sing in Oliver?
1968’s Oliver won the Academy Award for Best Score of a Musical Picture and Best Sound and was nominated several times over by other film boards celebrating its music and Jack Wild as Most Promising Newcomer. Really, a huge part of the movie’s success was Jack’s undeniable and versatile talent.
It just so happens, music was a familiar companion for Jack. For one thing, Jack did all of his own singing. Here’s another surprise connection to music: while Jack didn’t play Artful Dodger in the West End production, that role did go to one David Jones, who would later be part of The Monkees.
Rivaling Wild’s beloved film and TV career is his musical work. By 1970, this newcomer rising star had his own album, fittingly called The Jack Wild Album, mostly made up of Jack’s covers of popular British tracks. Some more original stuff came the following year with Everything’s Coming Up Roses. A lot of people’s personal favorite is “Bring Yourself Back to Me.”
Then in ‘72 came the last big album, A Beautiful World, whose standout is probably “EOIO.” To this day, the single “Some Beautiful” stands out for charting in both the US and UK.
Were Mark Lester and Jack Wild friends?
Of course, one of the driving forces for Oliver is the friendship between our titular character and the most Artful Dodger. Jack still became the apple of everyone’s eyes even when not playing the title role, but bringing Oliver to life was Mark Lester.
We’ve seen enough drama to know full-grown adults can get pretty petty when they don’t get the screen time they want. So, what about the teens?
Actually, life ended up imitating art here, and both Jack and Mark ended up fast friends just like their on-screen counterparts. Not long after Oliver!, the two reunited in 1971’s Melody.
Though they each did their own things, their brotherhood was so strong and left such an impression that Mark would say even decades later, “Jack was like a brother to me during the making of the film and was always very protective,” adding, “The chemistry between us was just something very, very special and lasted throughout our lives.”
How did Oliver Reed get the scars on his face?
Not everything was smooth sailing, even working on the film that made Jack a household name. In fact, working on Oliver!, all the child actors were scared of their adult colleague, Oliver Reed. A lot of repeating names here, sorry. But in the film, Reed played the big bad, Bill Sikes. Made sense that they were scared of him, but it was more about Reed’s sheer giant presence than his character’s actions.
Jack remembered, “As kids, we were all terrified of him because he was this giant of a man, and the only time we ever saw him was when he was in costume and made up for the part.”
As a talented and dedicated character actor, Reed kept his distance from the younger cast members to maximize his imposing effect; they never got to know him as anything but a looming, imposing figure.
Tragically, there was also another issue weighing heavy on Reed’s mind. Just a few years ago, he’d been at a bar when he got into an argument with some other patrons. He left with a dismissive comment, but when he went to the bathroom, the guys ambushed him with broken bottles. The resulting scuffle required over three dozen stitches and Reed was still left with scars across his face that he thought surely meant the end of his acting career.
Who did Jack Wild marry?
Jack never intended on being an actor, but that life path brought him some of his biggest milestones. For one thing, he was just 12 when he met Welsh actress Gaynor Jones in drama school. The two didn’t cross paths again until 1970, and six years later they married.
Sadly, they ended up splitting in ‘85 because of Jack’s personal demons. But Jack ended up finding lifelong love with a woman named Claire Harding, who he met while they worked together in Jack and the Beanstalk. They got married in 2005 but the fairytale was always in danger of drawing to a very dramatic, tragic close.
What happened to Jack Wild after ‘Oliver?’
After rocketing to fame with Oliver!, Jack further cemented his celebrity status by landing the role of Jimmy in H. R. Pufnstuf, a role he reprised in the 1970 movie. That same decade, he was classified as a teen heartthrob among the ranks of Barry Williams and David Cassidy.
Of course, he was featured in Tiger Beat. Actually, former Tiger Beat editor Ann Moses says Jack was one of the first of the magazine’s stars she approached from a difficult angle. She just couldn’t help but still see him as a child, at 17, chaperoned by his big bro while he navigated Hollywood. And, as she tells it, his time in the industry was like a shooting star – magnificent but very brief, before flickering out and leaving us all the sadder for it.
Jack had one ongoing grievance. Even in his twenties, he was landing gigs playing young teens. “When I first entered in the show business, of course I didn’t mind playing younger roles,” he said. “However, it did bug me when I would be 21 being offered the role of a 13-year-old. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy playing these roles; I had barrels of fun, I just wanted more serious and dramatic roles; it’s that simple.” He might have gotten the chance, since there were plans for him to star opposite Suzi Quatro from Happy Days in a British rendition of Bonny & Clyde, but this promising project never saw the light of day. That had to be a painful blow.
So, Jack took a break from acting and focused on his music, but when he returned to the industry, most of his roles were much smaller.
It was also in his early twenties that Jack became an alcoholic. He drained through his funds to fuel his addictions and it got to the point he had to move in with his father, he couldn’t afford anything else.
His alcoholism seeped into every aspect of Jack’s life and even ruined his marriage with his first wife, who left because of his drinking. It got so bad, he had three cardiac arrests and had to be hospitalized multiple times. By the mid-’80s, Jack downed three to four bottles of vodka a week. Every day, he could get through half a bottle of vodka plus bottles of wine.
Chronic alcoholism can lead to diabetes and that’s just what Jack got. For a blip of time, he was sober, thanks to a drying-out clinic run by musician Pete Townshend, but he drank a bottle of champagne in celebration and ended up at square one. It was only with support from Alcoholics Victorious that Jack got permanently sober in ‘89.
For years, Jack and his second wife Claire worked tirelessly on his autobiography, to tell the full scope of his unique story. Tragically, it would be a task Claire would have to finish alone.
Jack accomplished the admirable task of getting sober. But the damage to his health had been done. In 2000, Jack was diagnosed with oral cancer. Jack blamed his history of drinking. But he didn’t want to blame his drinking on his history as a child star. The way he saw it, quote, “I believed I’d have been a heavy drinker in any case.” His brother was also hospitalized for drinking too much.
So, Jack and Claire moved to a quiet village in Britain, and Jack underwent a bunch of procedures to battle his cancer, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy. For a brief time, the cancer went into remission, and it looked like Jack was in the clear. But then it came back in full force.
To try and save Jack’s life, he had his voice box and his tongue surgically removed. Jack Wild, who charmed nations with his voice, was left unable to speak, eat, or drink, and had to be fed through a tube in his stomach. That was how Jack spent the last years of his life before he died on March 1, 2006, at the age of just 53.
His wife Claire survives him and was left with the imposing task of finishing his biography, combing through his personal archives, audio interviews, and written recollections. But she finished the task and his autobiography released in 2016, called It’s a Dodger’s Life.
Jack Wild was exceptional, as child stars go. He never accounted for the legendary status he ended up earning, crossing paths with other triumphant and troubled souls figuring out their place while he figured out his. It was almost the perfect rags-to-riches story, but turned tragic right at the end.
So, tell us, who was your favorite star from Oliver? Did you listen to any of Jack’s music? Share your favorite memories in the comments below, we read every one!
