Local history: Akron-born child star Jimmy Butler gave all for country

Private Jimmy Butler lugged a bulky radio across a foggy battlefield as enemy machine guns roared and mortar shells thudded.

It wasn’t a scene from one of his Hollywood movies. The former child star had entered the thick of combat as a U.S. soldier.

Butler, a driver in the 882nd Field Artillery Battalion during World War II, had volunteered to take over the radio after its operator became ill. The Ohio native helped direct artillery fire Feb. 17, 1945, as the 70th Infantry Division fought to clear German troops from the French village of Kerbach.

The explosions drew closer, but Butler stuck to his mission.

Prominent family in Akron

Butler hailed from one of Akron’s prominent manufacturing families. His grandfather Frederick W. Butler, president of the E.H. Merrill Co. and vice president of Robinson Clay Products Co., had amassed a personal fortune worth about $6.2 million today.

His uncle F.W. Butler Jr. was president of the Akron Porcelain Co. and Mogadore Insulator Co. His other uncle H. Karl Butler donated 420 acres to establish Camp Manatoc for Boy Scouts and inspired Camp Butler’s name.

Jimmy’s father, Merrill W. Butler, an adventurer who owned a sugar plantation in Cuba in the early 20th century, met his future wife, Gertrude P. Thomas, a teacher from Michigan, while she was vacationing in the Caribbean. The couple wed in 1911 and moved to Akron to raise a family.

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The Butlers lived on North Highland Avenue at Highland Square. Jimmy had two older siblings: Grace and Fred. 

No matter what future Hollywood publicists would say, Jimmy was born Feb. 20, 1920 — as proved by a birth announcement in the Beacon Journal. By the time he became famous, his official biography had shaved a year or more off his age.

The family relocated to sunny California when Jimmy was a toddler, initially residing in Laguna Beach before buying a ranch — not a ranch home, an entire ranch — in La Canada. Jimmy attended the private, all-male Southern California Military Academy.

Acting debut in 1932 play

Gertrude Butler encouraged her handsome, outgoing son to pursue amateur theater. At age 12, he made his acting debut in the 1932 comedy “A Plain Man and His Wife” at the Pasadena Community Playhouse.

Critics believed he was younger.

“If Jimmy Butler, aged 8, is as good at 28, as he was in his first stage appearance, words won’t describe the actor,” the Los Angeles Evening Record gushed. “The program seemed anachronistic when it said that Jimmy ‘wants to be an actor when he grows up.’ ”

While many young thespians sounded stilted or overrehearsed, Jimmy delivered dialogue in a conversational, believable style.

His transition to motion pictures was seamless.

Universal Pictures had tested over 100 boys to play Margaret Sullavan’s son in the drama “Only Yesterday” (1933) before a scout tipped off the studio about that kid in the Pasadena play. He easily won the part.

Initially credited as “Jimmie Butler,” the newcomer earned positive reviews for effortlessly displaying a range of emotions from joy to grief.

Hollywood columnist in awe

“The most remarkable child since Jackie Cooper became known from coast to coast is Jimmie Butler, aged 11,” Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons wrote. “Jimmie’s radiant personality, his naturalness and his real boyness won everyone who saw him in ‘Only Yesterday.’

“Unless I am mistaken, you will find Jimmie within another few months a potent rival to Jackie for screen honors.”

Director Frank Borzage next cast Butler as a lead in the Columbia anti-war drama “No Greater Glory” (1934), explaining he needed a “clean-cut, resolute, self-reliant youth of the finest type.”

“I had to have an actor with those qualifications,” Borzage explained.

In one of his first interviews, Butler said he enjoyed Hollywood.

“Sure, I like being an actor,” he said. “It’s more fun than work.”

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When he grew older, he wanted to be a Western star. He already had a horse and burro on his ranch. 

“I like to ride and shoot,” Butler said. “I’ve got two .22 caliber rifles and I’m trying to get a .22 pistol. Right now, the chances are 50-50 for Dad says I can have it and Mother says I can’t. So I guess I won’t.”

Jimmy Butler in 35 movies

Butler appeared in 35 movies over a 10-year span, including “Manhattan Melodrama” (1934) with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy; “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch” (1934) with W.C. Fields and Pauline Lord; “Romance in Manhattan” (1935) with Ginger Rogers and Francis Lederer; “Dinky” (1935) with Jackie Cooper and Mary Astor; “The Dark Angel” with Frederic March and Merle Oberon; “Stella Dallas” (1937) with Barbara Stanwyck and John Boles; “The Shopworn Angel” (1938) with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan; and “Boys Town” (1938) with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney.

And just as he had hoped, he got to appear in westerns: “When a Man’s a Man” (1935), “Battle of Greed” (1937) and “Wells Fargo” (1937).

In “Call a Messenger” (1939) and “Tough as they Come” (1942), he shared the screen with the Dead End Kids, later known as the Bowery Boys. 

As with many child stars, though, the roles got smaller and fewer as he aged. He photographed young, even in his 20s, for adult roles.

On Feb. 15, 1941, he married Jean Fahrney, 17, a vocalist with the Horace Heidt Orchestra. They soon welcomed two sons: Jimmy and Jerry.

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After the nation went to war, Butler landed an uncredited part as a soldier in “This Is the Army” (1943). His last film was an uncredited role in the 1943 musical “Girl Crazy” starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.

Studios stopped calling. Butler’s movie career had ended, although he didn’t immediately realize it.

“I’ll lick it,” he vowed. “I love acting and I’ll never give it up.”

Drafted during World War II

The family moved to Jean’s hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Butler worked as a welder in a defense plant before getting drafted into the Army.

He entered the military in June 1944 and arrived in Europe in January 1945. A month later, Butler found himself on a battlefield in France, volunteering to operate a radio as a forward observer directed artillery fire.

“Joining the advance elements of Company F, 274th infantry, he carried the bulky radio from one vantage point to another, under observed enemy mortar and automatic weapons fire, effectively adjusting the artillery fire,” reads the Bronze Star citation for heroic achievement.

“While vigorously prosecuting his mission, he fell mortally wounded on the battlefield.”

Struck by a mortar fragment, Butler died Feb. 18, 1945, only two days away from his 25th birthday.

U.S. newspapers identified him as a former Dead End Kid and incorrectly listed his age as 23. He left behind his wife, two young sons and a host of relatives in Akron. 

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The soldier’s final resting place is beneath a white marble cross at Plot B, Row 43, Grave 28, in Epinal American Cemetery, a 48-acre monument that contains the graves of 5,252 military dead in Dinozé, France.

Jimmy Butler’s final role was that of an American hero.

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.