Actor / Director Profile

Although younger brother Dwayne Hickman is probably the better-remembered sibling today with his still-huge cult following as TV's Dobie Gillis, Darryl Hickman was certainly the more popular actor and deemed more talented when they were children. During his years at MGM in the wartime 40s, Darryl was featured prominently in many grade "A" film productions, including the classic The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Men of Boys Town (1941), The Human Comedy (1943), Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and The Happy Years (1950), among many others. Discovered at age 3, Darryl literally grew up on the sound stage but abandoned acting suddenly in 1951 to enter a monastery. It was not to be his calling, however, and he left over a year later and tried to pick up where he left off in Hollywood. It wasn't easy. After a decent role in Tea and Sympathy (1956), film and TV offers suddenly dried up. While brother Dwayne was hitting it big on TV, Darryl wisely moved behind the scenes and eventually became a program executive. Ironically, so did Dwayne after his acting career faded. Darryl would marry actress Pamela Lincoln, whom he met on the film set of The Tingler (1959). In later years he would also become a respected acting coach in the Los Angeles area.