I'm sorry to hear from Rusty White's exhaustively comprehensive Entertainment Insiders website that Manuel Padilla, Jr. (pictured above, to the right of Ron Ely), has died at the age of 51. When I was little, Padilla seemed like the luckiest kid in the world for getting to hang out with Tarzan week after week on the NBC series starring Ely (who had replaced Mike Henry in the big screen movies). As jungle orphan Jai, Padilla seemed to be having the time of his life running around in his underwear, getting up close to wild animals, shooting guns and I don't even know what else.
A native Angeleno, Padilla got involved in acting early and made many episodic TV appearances, from DR. KILDAIRE to GUNSMOKE toTHE FLYING NUN to ALICE and played spunky, endearing juveniles and scrappy, resourceful youths in Boris Sagal's DIME WITH A HALO (1963), ROBIN AND THE 7 HOODS (1964) with The Rat Pack , A MAN CALLED HORSE (1970, pictured above) with Richard Harris, THE GREAT WHITE HOPE with James Earl Jones and as the pint-sized Pharoah Carlos in both AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) and MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1979). Padilla seems to have been a favorite of Ron Howard, who directed him in the TV movie COTTON CANDY (1978) and looks to have gotten him on a couple episodes of his hit sitcom HAPPY DAYS. It took me aback to see that Padilla was listed as "Kid No. 2" in SCARFACE (1983) until I figured out that the 5' 3" actor wasn't even thirty when he appeared in that film, which was also his last. Padilla died unexpectedly on Tuesday, January 29th, after having spent his weekend making a public appearance at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California.
Every year, the city of Petaluma, California celebrates the making of AMERICAN GRAFFITI with a classic car show produced by Cruisin’ The Boulevard, Inc., an all-volunteer, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit California Public Benefit Corporation. Proceeds from the tribute go toward Petaluma schools and community programs benefiting the arts, history and safety. This year's celebration, which goes from May 15-17th (and from whose website I swiped the picture on the right - I hope they don't mind) is dedicated to the memory of Manuel Padilla, Jr.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Death Notice: Manuel Padilla, Jr.
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6 Arbogasps:
I'm so sad to read that Manuel Padilla Jr is dead ! I'm doing a blog in France about Claude GIRAUD my french favourite actor and about Ron Ely and Manuel Padilla. I'm very fond of Tarzan and I succeeded in finding DVDS coming from an english ebayer.
http://palilia.blogs.allocine.fr is the address of my blog. My name is Nicole MARQUE.
It is sad. By all accounts, he seemed to be a very nice guy very undamaged by his many years in the industry and living a simple and happy life.
I just wanted you guys to know how much i really cant find strong enough words to say tears are in my eyes that you remember our Manuel i've never really gone on the internet before. Manuel is the father of my oldest son, Manuel Padilla III. Rusty no worries regarding the picture.Don't really want to lecture. Thank goodness that the entertainment industry now requires a child actor to have a A,B average to even be able to require a work permit. Back when Manuel was working as a child actor,not so much (i guess)they didn't care about their education back then. Thats probably why so many childhood actors turned to drugs or alcohol(Manuel it was alcohol that actually killed him)His nephew is now in the industry thats how I know that education is VERY IMPORTANT NOW. I just wished it was back then cause I believe Manuel would still be with us today. He was very humble he never let his acting go to his head. He was so down to earth. We miss him so much.I hope he's never forgotten and reading these comments fill us with so much love hopefully they dont stop Thank you Love and Peace.
Debi, thanks for commenting. I can't believe it's been over a year already since Manuel died. In the picture at the bottom of the obituary I wrote for him last year he looks like he's still with us.
Is there anyone out there, that has or has access to one of the movies Manuel Padilla Jr. did called,"Dime with a Halo"? His mother Ernestine, would love to have a copy. Or maybe someone might know how we might be able to obtain one. Thank You Debi
Hello. I just stumbled on this page and was shocked to read about Manuel passing on! I went to Boy Scouts with Manuel in Burbank, Ca at St. Finbar Elementary School Rec Facility. I saw him a few years ago at Hot August Nights in Reno, and we had a great conversation. He gave me a hug, and gave me an autographed photo from American Grafitti of him. I haven't seen him at that point for probably 30 years or more. He said he still had a friend named Ron DeSantis that I also knew from the Boy Scouts, and that he was just talking about those days with Ron, and that he would tell Ron he met me. My prayers to his family. Thank you for letting me post this. Manuel was a good guy. I also met "Bill W." a few years ago. I understand what alcohol did to so many of us back then.
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