RIP Johnny Sheffield

c.m: Heart attack

Johnny Sheffield (April 11, 1931 – October 15, 2010) was an American former child actor.

In 1938, Sheffield became a child star after he was cast in the juvenile lead of a West Coast production of the highly successful Broadway play On Borrowed Time, which starred Dudley Digges and featured Victor Moore as Gramps. Sheffield played the role of Pud, a long role for a child. He later went to New York as a replacement and performed the role on Broadway.

The following year, his father read an article in the Hollywood Reporter that asked, "Have you a Tarzan Jr. in your backyard?" He believed he did and set up an interview. MGM was searching for a suitable youngster to play the adopted son of Tarzan in its next jungle movie with stars Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan. Sheffield was taken to an audition where Weissmuller chose him over more than 300 juvenile actors interviewed for the part of "Boy" in Tarzan Finds a Son (1939).

After he outgrew the role of Boy, the teenage Sheffield went on to star in his own jungle movie series. In 1949, he made Bomba the Jungle Boy with co-star Peggy Ann Garner. In all, he appeared as Bomba 12 times. Sheffield appeared in his last movie, as Bomba, in 1955.

(source: Wikipedia)