Actor. He will be best remembered for his roles of sidekick Richard 'Dick' Grayson' and the crime-fighting superhero 'Robin, the Boy Wonder' in the film serial, "Batman" (1943). The film serial, which was well over four hours long, was carried out in fifteen chapters. He was also the first actor and the youngest (he was only sixteen years old), to play the role of 'Richard 'Dick' Grayson'and 'Robin, the Boy Wonder' later paving the road for future actors such as Burt Ward, Brenton Thwaites, Johnny Duncan, and Chris O'Donnell. The film serial, which was directed by Lambert Hillyer, and based on characters created by animator Bob Kane, and written for the screen by Victor McLeod, Harry L. Fraser, and Leslie Swabacker, and which also starred J. Carrol Naish, Shirley Patterson, Frank Austin, and Lewis Wilson, as 'millionaire Bruce Wayne' and crime-fighting superhero 'Batman,' tells the story of Japanese spymaster Prince Daka who operates a covert espionage organization located in Gotham City's now-deserted Little Tokyo which turns American scientists into pliable zombies. He is also best remembered for his role as 'Lou Gehrig as a boy' in "Pride Of The Yankees" (1942), which focused on the life and career of the famed baseball player Lou Gehrig, who was portrayed by actor Gary Cooper as an adult. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as Douglas Malcolm Wheatcroft to silent film actor Stanton Nelson Wheatcroft and his wife Beatrice Haydon Wheatcroft on August 12, 1926. The couple married on December 12, 1921, and divorced in 1922 or in September 1926. Other sources say that Stanton Nelson Wheatcroft was not his biological father and that his true father's name is unknown. His mother apparently moved to San Francisco, California, following the divorce. After his birth, his father attempted to have his former wife declared dead so that he could stop paying alimony. His parent's divorce was a bitter one and was supposedly hard on the young boy. He and his mother later moved to Los Angeles, California, where he became fascinated with Hollywood and movie stars. He was discovered by a talent agent when he was loitering near one of the film studios, and he was signed to a contract. He began using the stage of Douglas Croft, and he also shaved several years off his age, claiming in July 1941, and again in March 1942 that he was 11 years old. A December 1941 newspaper report listed his age as 12, when he was by then actually 15. A popular curly-haired child actor, he worked with Warner Brothers Studios and made his actual film debut playing the role of 'Dewey Roberts as a boy' in the film, "Remember The Day" (1941). The romantic war drama, which was directed by Henry King, and written for the screen by Tess Slesinger, Frank Davis, and Allan Scott, and also starred Claudette Colbert, Shepperd Strudwick, John Payne, and Ann E. Todd, tells the story of an elderly schoolteacher named Nora Trinell, who while waiting to meet presidential nominee Dewey Roberts, recalls him as her student back in 1916 and his relation to Dan Hopkins, the man she married and lost. Besides, "Remember The Day" (1941), "The Pride Of The Yankees" (1942), and "Batman" (1943), his many other film credits include, "King's Row" (1942), "Not A Ladies' Man" (1942), "Yankee Dandy Doodle" (1942), "Flight Lieutenant" (1942), "George Washington Slept Here" (1942, in which he performed the song, "You're In The Army Now"), "Harrigan's Kid" (1943), "Presenting Lily Mars" (1943), and "River Gang" (1945). Three of his films including, "King's Row (1942, 'Drake McHugh as a boy'), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, 'George M. Cohan-As a boy at age 13') and The Pride of the Yankees (1942, 'Lou Gehrig as a boy'), were all Best Picture Oscar nominees. During World War II, he served with the rank of Technician Fifth Grade (or Tec 5), with the United States Army. In February 1947, he was critically injured in a motorcycle accident that killed 19-year-old driver John J. Masterson. His last film role was as 'Danny Burns, Newsboy' in "Killer McCoy" (1947), with Mickey Rooney, Brian Donlevy, and Ann Blyth. He was also featured in the film, "The Three Stooges Follies" (1974), and the documentary film, "Batmania from Comics To Screen" (1989). He was married to Mildred Sporkin Wheatcroft on January 7, 1951, in Yuma, Arizona, but the couple had no children. He passed away from acute alcohol intoxication and liver disease at the Palomar Hotel in Los Angeles, California, near the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Western Avenue just down the street from 20th Century Fox's Hollywood Studios. His funeral was held through Willen-Glasband Memorial Chapels Directors, and he was buried in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California. His widow Mildred who moved to Oregon following his death, and became an accountant and a volunteer at a state penitentiary, passed away in Monmouth, Oregon, on March 10, 1991, at the age of 73. She was cremated, and her ashes were buried with her husband at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California. He was also the godfather of actress/production designer/poet/concert performer Sharmagne Leland-St. John-Sylbert. As of 2013, he remains the youngest person (aged 16), to portray Robin, who at that time was depicted in comic books as being a young teenager. The producers made one change to the character, and that was to give him a wig of untamed curly hair.