A year ago I wrote Ronnie Burns: My First Adoptee, about the first adoptee, with whom in the days of deep adoption secrecy, I ever “connected,” even though I never met him. My second adoptee was actor James MacArthur. Since MacArthur died on October 28, it seems an appropriate time to recall him.
James Gordon MacArthur was born on December 8, 1937 in Los Angeles. He was adopted at birth (another report says seven months) by “first lady of the the American theatre” Helen Hayes and her husband playwright, screenwriter (Twentieth Centry, Front Page, Wuthering Heights, Gunga Din) and Algonquin Roundtabler, Charlie MacArthur. His godmother was Lillian Gish. His extended family circle included Ben Hecht, Robert Benchley, Harpo Marx, John Steinbeck, and John Barrymore. He had one sister, Mary MacArthur, the biological daughter of the MacArthurs. In 1949 at the age of 19, Mary, an aspiring actress, died from the sudden onset of bulbar polio, a tragedy from which the family never recovered. Jim’s adoptive uncle, insurance entrepreneur and philanthropist John D. MacArthur, established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the benefactor of the “genius awards.
Most people remember James MacArthur as Danno on the long-running TV series Hawaii Five-O. But before he was Danno he was Hal Ditmar, the angry teen protagonist of the 1957 film The Young Stranger. Directed by a young John Frankenheimer, the film is an early entry in the mainstream teen rumble genre quickly replacing the un-sexed and innocent “youth films” of Andy Hardy and Henry Aldrich, Roger Corman and B movies not withstanding. Jim had originated the role of Hal in the 1955 Frankenheimer-directed TV play Deal a Blow. When Frankenheimer took the play to Hollywood, he took James MacArthur with him.
The following year, Jim starred in the first of a line of Disney films he was to appear in over the next few years, The Light in the Forest. Based on the Conrad Richter novel of the same name, situated in 18th century pre-revolutionary America,the film is about John Butler–kidnapped by the Leni Lanape as a child and reared as True Son, the son of the chief–struggling to fit in to the white culture he was taught to hate, after he is repatriated with his family and community 11 years later. Both the film and novel explore the tension between identity and family and the complexity of the brokenness of both. The film has a safe, contained ending. The novel leaves True Son’s fate open-ended as the territorial war between colonials and Indians heats up. Who am I? Where do I belong?
James MarArthur like other celebritized adoptees was tagged “adopted son of.” While private adoptees like us, outside of the scrutiny of the press and public, were locked in the closet, stigmatized, silenced and shamed by our birth/adoptive status, public adoptees like James MacArthur were stigmatized and othered, the most private part of their self exposed to conjecture and gossip by the public at large. While private adoptees might have been banging on the closet door to get out, public adoptees might have been knocking to get in. No matter private or public, we cannot escape our “adopted son/daughter of” identity whether in the home or the public square. No matter age or accomplishment we are eternally othered and identified by our adoptive status. When James MacArthur died he was identified as “adopted son of.”
I continue to stand by this, but am also uncomfortable. I believe deeply that our adoption stories are our own to do with what we please. They are not to be exposed to the snoopy public (including other adoptees) without our consent. (For that reason I have not repeated conjecture from Robin Chapman’s blog discussion on MacArthur’s parentage.) At the same time, though, I am aware of the involuntary sacrifices that were coerced from public adoptees, which in fact, helped private adoptees cope with our own invisibility. People like Ronnie Burns, James MacArthur and the bevy of the Hollywood Adopted fetishized by the press stood for us in an odd way. Though rendered passive themselves, they made us feel visible and human. They let us connect to ourselves.******
James MacArthur was a jack of all theatre trades. Despite his family credentials he made his bones in summer stock. working as a set painter and lighting director. He teched for Barbara Bel Geddes in The Little Hut and for Gloria Vanderbilt in The Swan. He also did special effects, and even ran a theatre parking lot. After The Young Stranger he headed for Broadway where he appeared opposite Jane Fonda in Invitation to a March and received a Theater World Award for his role. Most of his theatre work, however, was regional.
James MacArthur was a journeyman actor and seems to have loved craft over ego, taking jobs that other actors of his stature might have looked down on. He somestimes took small but pivitol roles in films such as in The Bedford Incident and Clint Eastwood’s Hang “Em High.
You always give me a lot to think about, Marley.
One of these days we’re going to have to do that adoption film festival. Really and truly.
I’d love to, Dawn There are thousands of adoption themed films out there . The big job, if that’ would be doing commentary.
Really really enjoyed this post.
I have always been a cringer when it came to “adopted child of” when it just seemed irrelevant to the description of the person in question.
As I sit here and write this I cannot think of one celebrity that I connected to as an adoptee growing up. Not sure why, or if I’ve just forgotten.
I’d also like to say that growing up I was the one embarrassing my mom (reverse of your experience) by bringing up my being adopted to others although I have to admit my mom hid any discomfort fairly well.
Leaving any judgment of adoption aside, on the surface James MacArthur got a pretty interesting family. I had no idea before him dying.
Maybe I’m just weird about this, but seeing real life adoptees out there (not actors playing them) was a revelation to me. I never knowingly knew any adopted person in real life until I was out of college, and that was only one person, quite a bit older than I. I didn’t know any others until I was in my 30s.
I’ve only begun to think about public and private bastards. I think it’s worth pursuing on a deeper level.
As for connecting with actors, my big connections was James Garner who had nothing to do with adoption. Oh my! I had a huge James Garner collection, and still have some of it, including an autographed (probably not genuine)pictures of him I kept framed over my bed. There was also James Dean and….Bridget Baradot, Oh strange is that last one. The bonus was that my parents had seen Garner on Broadway in the Caine Mutiny Court Martial. He played a judge with one short line.
Very interesting and thoughtful, Marley.I didn’t know about these people when I was growing up, but always did take an interest in people who were adopted I heard about, even though I rarely if ever talked to the ones I knew about it until I was about 30. Seems possible that the adoptees in the Hollywood world helped to sustain your interest in movies–though there certainly were lots of other reasons for that!
Mine was a private adoption. I always knew something was odd as the family treated me like a stepchild but didn’t know what was up. The truth sets you free – that and 23 and Me. Always liked Danno – probably stereotyped him to be on 5-0 for that long. Great article.