Actor. Baby LeRoy was an American child actor, popular in the 1930s. Born Ronald Le Roy Overacker in Los Angeles, California, his career began when he was less than a year old, co-starring with Maurice Chevalier in A "Bedtime Story", and ended with a cameo role as himself in Cinema Circus (1937). When he was sixteen months old, he became the youngest person ever put under term contract by a major studio. He is best known for his appearances in three films alongside W.C. Fields: Tillie and Gus (1933), The Old Fashioned Way (1934) and It's a Gift (1934). Later, in 1940, the film "The Biscuit Eater" was to have been a comeback for LeRoy. But while filming the first scene on location, which called for LeRoy to swing across a lake on a rope, he fell into the water twice. By the following day, he'd lost his voice from a cold. Because the entire crew was on location, the accident forced the director to choose between recasting or holding up production until he recovered: he chose to recast, and the film became one of Billy Lee's best-remembered roles. LeRoy never appeared in another production after his brief career. In the next years of his life, he became a merchant seaman, and in 1957, as an adult, LeRoy appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show "To Tell The Truth". He died in Van Nuys, California in 2001, at the age of 69.
Actor. Baby LeRoy was an American child actor, popular in the 1930s. Born Ronald Le Roy Overacker in Los Angeles, California, his career began when he was less than a year old, co-starring with Maurice Chevalier in A "Bedtime Story", and ended with a cameo role as himself in Cinema Circus (1937). When he was sixteen months old, he became the youngest person ever put under term contract by a major studio. He is best known for his appearances in three films alongside W.C. Fields: Tillie and Gus (1933), The Old Fashioned Way (1934) and It's a Gift (1934). Later, in 1940, the film "The Biscuit Eater" was to have been a comeback for LeRoy. But while filming the first scene on location, which called for LeRoy to swing across a lake on a rope, he fell into the water twice. By the following day, he'd lost his voice from a cold. Because the entire crew was on location, the accident forced the director to choose between recasting or holding up production until he recovered: he chose to recast, and the film became one of Billy Lee's best-remembered roles. LeRoy never appeared in another production after his brief career. In the next years of his life, he became a merchant seaman, and in 1957, as an adult, LeRoy appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show "To Tell The Truth". He died in Van Nuys, California in 2001, at the age of 69.
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