Ted Donaldson obit

Ted Donaldson, Young Actor in ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,’ Dies at 89

He also played the boy with a dancing caterpillar in Cary Grant's 'Once Upon a Time' and starred opposite a German shepherd in eight 'Rusty' movies.

 

He was not on the list.

Ted Donaldson, who starred as Bud Anderson on the original radio version of Father Knows Best and as Neely Nolan in the beloved family drama A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the first feature directed by Elia Kazan, has died. He was 89.

Donaldson died Wednesday of complications from a fall in his Echo Park apartment in January, his friend Thomas Bruno told The Hollywood Reporter.

In his big-screen debut, Donaldson portrayed a boy who gets his pet caterpillar Curly to dance when he plays “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” on the harmonica in the comedy fantasy Once Upon a Time (1944), starring Cary Grant and Janet Blair.

He also starred as Danny Mitchell in eight B-movies from Columbia Pictures that revolved around a German shepherd named Rusty. The first one, Adventures of Rusty (1945), featured Ace the Wonder Dog.

An only child, Donaldson was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 20, 1933. His father was singer-composer Will Donaldson (he co-wrote “Do Wacka Do,” years later a hit for Roger Miller). After his mother, Jo, died when he was just months old, his dad married organist/composer Muriel Pollock.

Donaldson attended the Professional Children’s School in New York and had a magic act, and he joined the original Broadway production of Life With Father as the son Harlan in 1941. Also that year, he played Tiny Tim opposite Edmund Gwenn as Scrooge in a weeklong serialized radio version of A Christmas Carol.

In 1943, Donaldson was back on Broadway alongside Gregory Peck, Stella Adler and Geraldine Fitzgerald as a younger version of Kenneth Tobey’s character in Sons and Soldiers, directed by Max Reinhardt.

His performance in that led to him auditioning for Columbia chief Harry Cohn for the role of Arthur “Pinky” Thompson in Once Upon a Time, based on the radio play My Client Curly.

Grant took a liking to the boy, supervising his fitting for a new blue serge suit at a Hollywood costumer and then attending, with his wife Betsy Drake, Donaldson’s 1949 high school graduation ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The superstar actor affectionately called him “Teddy,” Donaldson recalled in a 2018 interview.

After playing an orphan in Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944), starring Edward G. Robinson and Ruth Warrick, Donaldson landed the part of Cornelius “Neely” Nolan in Fox’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), based on Betty Smith’s popular 1943 novel.

Set in Williamsburg in the early 20th century, the film also featured Dorothy McGuire and James Dunn (in an Oscar-winning turn) as his parents, Katie and Johnny Nolan, and Peggy Ann Garner (recipient of a juvenile Oscar) as his older sister, Francie.

From 1949-54, Donaldson played James “Bud” Anderson Jr. opposite Robert Young on NBC Radio’s Father Knows Best. He got an offer to continue with Young on the TV adaptation at CBS but turned it down.

“I didn’t want to be typed,” he said in the 2002 book Growing Up on the Set. “I didn’t want to be a 21-year-old playing a 15- or 16-year-old kid. I wanted to do other things.” Later, however, he would regret the decision. (Billy Gray portrayed Bud for six seasons on the TV show.)

After Adventures of Rusty, Donaldson came back for The Return of Rusty (1946), For the Love of Rusty (1947), The Son of Rusty (1947), My Dog Rusty (1948), Rusty Leads the Way (1948), Rusty Saves a Life (1949) and, finally, Rusty’s Birthday (1949).

The young Donaldson had a way with animals — he also worked with a burro in Personality Kid (1946) and with a horse in The Red Stallion (1947).

His big-screen résumé also included A Guy, a Gal and a Pal (1945), The Decision of Christopher Blake (1948), The Green Promise (1949) and Phone Call From a Stranger (1952). His final onscreen credits came on the TV shows Matinee Theater in 1955-56 and The Silent Service in 1958.

A real gentleman, Donaldson later taught acting classes and worked for years at a bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard. Once, when he delivered a book to a customer’s home, he was “overjoyed and a little embarrassed” to find actress Alexis Smith on the other side of the doorway, Bruno said. The two had worked together in The Decision of Christopher Blake.

“She walked him into her home and sat him down and made him feel welcome,” he said.

Donaldson was a guest at several TCM Classic Film Festivals — including in 2016, when a restored version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn delighted audiences — and was looking forward to returning to the Hollywood event next month.

Actor

 

    The Silent Service (1957)

    The Silent Service

        Lt. Clarke

        TV Series

        1958

 

Matinee Theatre (1955)

Matinee Theatre

 

    TV Series

 

    1955–1956

 

Front Row Center (1955)

Front Row Center

 

    TV Series

 

    1955

 

Joan Leslie and Forrest Tucker in Flight Nurse (1953)

Flight Nurse

 

    Patient (uncredited)

 

    1953

 

Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)

Phone Call from a Stranger

 

    Jerry Fortness

 

    1952

 

Ted Donaldson, Ann Doran, John Litel, and Flame in Rusty's Birthday (1949)

Rusty's Birthday

 

    Danny Mitchell

 

    1949

 

Natalie Wood, Walter Brennan, Marguerite Chapman, and Robert Paige in The Green Promise (1949)

The Green Promise

 

    Phineas Matthews

 

    1949

 

Ted Donaldson, Ann Doran, Stephen Dunne, Gloria Henry, John Litel, and Flame in Rusty Saves a Life (1949)

Rusty Saves a Life

 

    Danny Mitchell

 

    1949

 

Robert Douglas, Ted Donaldson, and Alexis Smith in The Decision of Christopher Blake (1948)

The Decision of Christopher Blake

 

    Christopher Blake

 

    1948

 

Ted Donaldson, Ann Doran, John Litel, Sharyn Moffett, and Flame in Rusty Leads the Way (1948)

Rusty Leads the Way

 

    Danny Mitchell

 

    1948

 

Ted Donaldson and Flame in My Dog Rusty (1948)

My Dog Rusty

 

    Danny Mitchell

 

    1948

 

Flame in Pal's Adventure (1948)

Pal's Adventure

 

    Ted

 

    Short

 

    1948

 

My Pal

 

    Ted

 

    Short

 

    1947

 

Ted Donaldson and Rusty in The Son of Rusty (1947)

The Son of Rusty

 

    Danny Mitchell

 

    1947

 

Ted Donaldson, Noreen Nash, and Robert Paige in The Red Stallion (1947)

The Red Stallion

 

    Joel Curtis

 

    1947

 

Ted Donaldson, Tom Powers, and Flame in For the Love of Rusty (1947)

For the Love of Rusty

 

    Danny Mitchell

 

    1947

 

Personality Kid (1946)

Personality Kid

 

    Davey Roberts

 

    1946

 

Ted Donaldson and Barbara Wooddell in The Return of Rusty (1946)

The Return of Rusty

 

    Danny Mitchell

 

    1946

 

Ted Donaldson, Billy Gray, Gary Gray, Bobby Larson, Margaret Lindsay, Douglas Madore, Conrad Nagel, Eddie Parker, Addison Richards, and Ace the Wonder Dog in Adventures of Rusty (1945)

Adventures of Rusty

 

    Danny Mitchell

 

    1945

 

Ted Donaldson, Ross Hunter, and Lynn Merrick in A Guy, a Gal and a Pal (1945)

A Guy, a Gal and a Pal

 

    Butch

 

    1945

 

Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Ted Donaldson, Peggy Ann Garner, Dorothy McGuire, and Lloyd Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

 

    Neeley Nolan

 

    1945

 

Edward G. Robinson in Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944)

Mr. Winkle Goes to War

 

    Barry

 

    1944

 

Cary Grant, Janet Blair, Ted Donaldson, and James Gleason in Once Upon a Time (1944)

Once Upon a Time

 

    Arthur 'Pinky' Thompson

 

    1944