SARASOTA, FLA. -- Freddie Bartholomew, 67, a popular child actor of the 1930s whose name became synonymous with the boys he played in "David Copperfield" and "Little Lord Fauntleroy," died of emphysema here Jan. 23. He lived in Bradenton, Fla.
Mr. Bartholomew was born Frederick Llewellyn on March 28, 1924, in London. He first performed at age 4, when he recited a poem at a church social.
He later told interviewers that Millicent Bartholomew, an aunt who brought him up and from whom he took his name, took him on the rounds of British film studios. His first movie work was in two British productions, "Fascination," 1930, and "Lily Christine," 1932.
His aunt later took him to the United States, where MGM hired him when he was 10. He played the title role in "David Copperfield,' a production that also included W.C. Fields as Mr. Micawber, and became an overnight star after the film opened in 1934.
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Other films included "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in 1936, in which he played an American boy who discovers he is heir to an English dukedom, and "Captains Courageous" in 1937. He also played Greta Garbo's son in "Anna Karenina," 1935.
He was among the most popular child actors of the 1930s and early 1940s. His salary soared to $2,500 a week to make him the highest-paid child star after Shirley Temple. Mr. Bartholomew made headlines in the late-1930s when he cut his signature curls. But he did not act in films past boyhood.
In 1937, the dimpled Mr. Bartholomew was involved in two court battles. In one, his parents tried to regain custody of him from his aunt. In the other, his aunt tried but failed to get him released from his MGM contract. He remained in custody of his aunt and his parents were given an allowance from his salary.
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During World War II, he was a maintenance worker on B-17 bombers. Mr. Bartholomew tried to revive his career after he was disharged, appearing at nightclubs and in summer theater.
In the early 1950s, he was host of a daytime television show and was an associate director of a New York television station. He said in a 1951 interview that the millions he earned as a child had been spent, primarily on lawsuits. In 1954, he went to work for the Benton & Bowles advertising agency in New York, rising to vice president.
Of the 24 films he made, Mr. Bartholomew said he most enjoyed making "Captains Courageous." The movie, about a spoiled, rich boy who falls off a cruise ship and lives for a time among fishermen, took a year to make, with long shooting stints in coastal Florida and Catalina Island off California.
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"For a kid, it was like one long outing," he said in an interview. "Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Mickey Rooney, Melvyn Douglas and I -- we all grew very close toward one another in those 12 months. When the shooting was finished, we cried like a bunch of babies as we said our goodbyes."
Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth, of Bradenton; a daughter, Katie, of Santa Fe, N.M.; a son, Frederick, of Coral Springs, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Celia Paul of New York; and three grandchildren.
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