Darryl Hickman, Child Actor in 'The Grapes of Wrath,' 'Leave Her to Heaven,' Dies at 92

Darryl Hickman, an accomplished child actor who appeared in the movie classics "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Leave Her to Heaven" 80 years ago, died May 22 at 92.

Hickman was born in Hollywood on July 28, 1931. He was recruited by Paramount in 1937, making his uncredited screen debut in a bit part as the son of Ronald Colman's character in "The Prisoner of Zenda."

After working with Bing Crosby in "The Star Maker" (1939) — his credited debut — he was cast as Winfield Joad, the youngest son in the 1939 movie classic "The Grapes of Wrath," about a family struggling through the Great Depression.

His greatest success came as Danny Harland in 1945's "Leave Her to Heaven," a noir melodrama starring Gene Tierney as a deranged socialite who becomes obsessively possessive of her new husband, played by Cornel Wilde. Hickman plays her young, polio-stricken brother-in-law. Feeling he is coming between her husband and herself, she encourages him to swim in a lake... then dispassionately watches as he drowns.

The film was 20th Century Fox's biggest hit of the 1940s. In 2018, it was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its "cultural, historical, or aesthetic" significance.

Hickman had been the film's last surviving cast member.

Widely recognized for his dramatic and comedic abilities, Hickman acted in about 50 films as a juvenile, notably "The Farmer's Daughter" (1940), "The Way of All Flesh" (1940), "Men of Boys Town" (1941), the "Our Gang" short "Going to Press" (1942), "Keeper of the Flame," "The Human Comedy" (1943), the Judy Garland classic "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944), "Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout" (1944), "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" (1946), and "Dangerous Years" (1947).

As a young adult, he acted in the controversial "Tea and Sympathy" (1956), about an effeminate schoolboy who is bullied and seeks refuge in his friendship with a female teacher, and in horror director William Castle's legendarily gimmicky "The Tingler" (1959), on which he met his future wife.

The older brother of teen idol Dwayne Hickman (who died in 2022), he guested on his sibling's hit TV series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" (1959-1960), as well as on the series "Perry Mason" (1957) and "Gunsmoke" (1959).

After acting on Broadway in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" (1963), he took a took hiatus from business.

Having written scripts for "The Loretta Young Show" in the early '60s, he was a producer of the soap "Love of Life" in the '70s.

Hickman returned to movie acting, albeit sporadically, appearing in the Best Picture Oscar winner "Network" (1976), the sci-fi flick "Looker" (1981), and the Burt Reynolds actioner "Sharky's Machine" (1981).

He told TCM's Robert Osborne in 2006 of the career that had come to define his life that his mother was the one who had "wanted to be a movie star so badly, but she was so shy she couldn't get her picture taken." Saying he was glad to provide his mother with wish-fulfillment, he asserted his movie career was "a great time. I had a ball."

In 2007, he published the book "The Unconscious Actor: Out of Control, in Full Command."

Hickman was married to and divorced from the late actress Pamela Lincoln. He was preceded in death by one of their sons, and is survived by their other son.