Gary Gray, a child actor during the '40s and '50s and considered one of the better child performers of his era, died of cancer on April 4 in Brush Prairie, Washington. He was 69.

He was born Gray Dickson Gray on December 18, 1936 in Los Angeles. His father was Bill Gray, a business manager in Hollywood who listed comedians Bert Wheeler and Jack Benny as clients. Both Wheeler and Benny encouraged Gray to put his photogenic young son in front of the camera. By the tender age of four, young Gary made his film debut with Joan Crawford in George Cukor's A Woman's Face (1941). Gray's next features, although notable pictures all: Heaven Can Wait (1943), Gaslight, Meet Me in St. Louis (both 1944), The Clock (1945), simply didn't showcase him much, and the stature of his roles were typified by his closing credits which were labeled "boy at pavilion," "boy in park," or "boy in park with nanny."

His breakthrough came a few years later, when he co-starred in a pair of terrific westerns; the first was with Randolph Scott in Return of the Bad Men, and the other was as the son of widower William Holden in Rachel and the Stranger (both 1948). He went to MGM and played the son of James Whitmore and future first lady Nancy Davis in the odd religious drama The Next Voice You Hear (1950) and then was cast with the original Lassie in the fine family drama The Painted Hills (1951). Gray was never was a top child star with these movies, but he proved that he was a cut above his contemporaries because he never relied on overly cute mannerisms and delivered his lines in a very natural way that always felt organic within his scenes with his adult co-stars.

Despite his talents, when Gray moved into his adolescence, good parts became more scarce. He made a few theatrical movies: Crazylegs (1953), The First Hundred Days (1955), Teenage Rebel (1956), and the eerie drive-in melodrama The Party Crashers (1958), which was notable as the final film appearances of Frances Farmer and Bobby Driscoll.

Despite his setback in films, Gary found comfort in television and guest starred in some popular programs: Fireside Theatre, Studio 57, December Bride, and I Love Lucy before he bowed out of show business altogether in the early '60s and started a lucrative swimming pool maintenance and repair business. In recent years, Gray found himself making the rounds at retrospective film festivals and was proof positive that there was life for a child actor after he or she leaves the entertainment industry. He is survived by his wife of 45 years Jean Charlene; daughters, Cindy Jean, April Lyn, Kimberly Ann, Carrie Elizabeth; and numerous grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole