Lee Aaker, best known as the 1950s child star of The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, has died at 77. The news comes via a social media post by former child actor and activist Paul Petersen. Petersen said Aaker “passed away in Arizona on April 1st, alone & unclaimed, listed as an ‘indigent decedent.'”
Aaker was 11 when The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin first appeared on ABC. The western’s original run on Friday evenings lasted from October 1954 to May 1959. Aaker played Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid being raised at Fort Apache. He starred opposite James E. Brown’s Lieutenant Ripley “Rip” Masters and, of course, a number of German shepherds who portrayed the titular canine.
Aaker’s career began propitiously. Even before Rin Tin Tin, at the age of 8 he had uncredited appearances in films such as The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and High Noon (1952). Aaker then appeared opposite Barbara Stanwyck...
Aaker was 11 when The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin first appeared on ABC. The western’s original run on Friday evenings lasted from October 1954 to May 1959. Aaker played Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid being raised at Fort Apache. He starred opposite James E. Brown’s Lieutenant Ripley “Rip” Masters and, of course, a number of German shepherds who portrayed the titular canine.
Aaker’s career began propitiously. Even before Rin Tin Tin, at the age of 8 he had uncredited appearances in films such as The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and High Noon (1952). Aaker then appeared opposite Barbara Stanwyck...
- 4/14/2021
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
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