Rex Thompson was a popular child actor in the Hollywood of the 1950’s. He was born in 1942 in New York City. Among his more popular films were “Young Bess”, “The Eddy Duchin Story” and “The King and I” as the son of Deborah Kerr. His last acting role was in an episode of TV’s “The Fugitive” in 1966. His IMDB website here.
Whatever happened to the amazing young actor Rex Thompson, born on 14 December 1942
Thomson began his child-acting career in 1952 television series, Hands of Mystery.
In 1953, he made his superb film debut in the underrated George Sidney-directed Young Bess. In 1956, played the character of Louis Leonowens in Walter Lang-directed film, The King and I. In both films, he starred alongside Deborah Kerr.
In the TV series Robert Montgomery Presents, he starred as David Copperfield (1953/4). Rex appeared with Greer Garson in Her Twelve Men (1954).
He was excellent as Tyrone Power’s son in The Eddy Duchin Story and terrific as the eldest son, whose dying mother asks that he find families for himself and his five siblings, in the tear-jerker All Mine To Give, with Glynis Johns and Cameron Mitchell.
There have been fewer than ten acting credits after that, a few of them unverified.Notably, he was in three Omnibus episodes ( one as Miles in The Turn of the Screw), in The DuPont Show of the Month ( The Prince and the Pauper), as a calculating teenage student in Studio One ( The Morning After) and an episode ( The Little Lame Prince)of Shirley Temple’s Storybook.
In 1963/4, he was in twelve episodes of The Doctors, and in 1966, appeared as a young concert violinist virtuoso in an episode of The Fugitive.
Also in 1966, he was apparently in a film, Lamp at Midnight, with a terrific cast including Hurd Hatfield, Kim Hunter, Melvyn Douglas and Michael Hordern. He was way down the cast list, as The Page.
Thereafter, his career seems to have stalled, or he chose a different path in life.
In the subsequent years, there have been attempts to find him, without success.
In 2021, I wrote about him and was delighted when Jandolin Marks commented : ‘ He lives in Pennsylvania, has a grown daughter and grandchildren. He is a very kind man
