Mickey Kuhn

Mickey Kuhn
Kuhn in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Born	(1932-09-21) September 21, 1932 (age 88) Waukegan, Illinois
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1934–1956 (as actor)
Spouse(s)	Jean Marie Hannick ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1962)​ Barbara Traci ​ (m. 1984)​

Theodore Matthew Michael Kuhn Jr. (born September 21, 1932) is an American actor. He started his career as a child actor, active on-screen during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He is most noted for playing Beau Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939).^[1]

He also appeared in Juarez (1939), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Red River (1948), and Broken Arrow (1950). He left the film industry in 1956, but made his final acting appearance on the TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents that year.

Biography[]

Career as a child star[]

Born in Waukegan, Illinois of German descent to Mickey Snr. and Pearl Hicks, he gained fame as a child actor in the 1930s and appeared opposite such stars Conrad Nagel and Leslie Howard, amongst others.^[2] His first fame came when he won the role auditioned for by 100 other child actors in playing Beau Wilkes (the son of Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland's characters Ashley Wilkes and Melanie Hamilton), in Gone with the Wind in 1939.

He went on to appear in Juarez (1939) opposite Bette Davis, as the adoptive son of John Wayne in Red River and then in Broken Arrow starring James Stewart.

Featuring in the film A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), this role would reunite him with Vivien Leigh a dozen years after they first worked together in Gone with the Wind. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Kuhn played a sailor who directs Leigh's character Blanche to the correct streetcar which will take her to her sister's neighborhood at the beginning of the film. He is therefore given the distinction of being the only actor to share screen time with Vivien Leigh in each of her Academy Award winning performances.^[3]

Navy career[]

In the Navy from 1951 until 1955, Kuhn worked as an aircraft electrician.^[1]

Post-acting career[]

Kuhn left the film business in 1956 and worked for American Airlines (from 1965 to 1995)^[1] and the Boston airport in administrative positions until his retirement. He now regularly visits film festivals dealing with his films.

Following Dame Olivia de Havilland's death on July 26, 2020, Kuhn, now aged 88, is the last surviving credited cast member from Gone with the Wind.^[4] Caren Marsh Doll and Patrick Curtis are also living, although their parts were uncredited. Kuhn is also the last surviving cast member from A Streetcar Named Desire.

Kuhn currently lives in Naples, Florida and volunteers four hours per week at a local hospital.^[5]

Awards[]

In 2005, Kuhn received a Golden Boot Award, an award given to acknowledge significant contributions to the Western genre.^[6]

Filmography[]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Goldrup, Tom and Jim (2002). Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Film and Television. McFarland & Co. pp. 178–185. ISBN 1476613702.
• Holmstrom, John (1996). The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich: Michael Russell, p. 178.

External links[]

• Mickey Kuhn at IMDb