Home News celebrity news Jack Wild: The Artful Dodger, Dies of Cancer |Know Everything|

Jack Wild: The Artful Dodger, Dies of Cancer |Know Everything|

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Today I’m sharing a heartbreaking news with you friends Jack Wild is no more. Do you want to know how he died then you are on the right place.

Today I will share everything about him, Who was he? what happened to him and how he died so keep reading the article to know everything about him. Follow chopnews to get more updates

Who was Jack Wild

Jack Wild was an English actor and musician who lived from September 30, 1952, to March 1, 2006.

He is most remembered for his appearance as the Artful Dodger in the 1968 film Oliver!, for which he got an Academy Award nod for Best Supporting Actor at the age of 16, making him the category’s fourth-youngest candidate.

He was also nominated for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for the performance.

Wild also starred in the films Melody (1971) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, as well as the television series H.R. Pufnstuf (1969) and its film version Pufnstuf (1970). (1991).

Jack Wild early life

On September 30, 1952, Wild was born into a working-class household in Royton, Lancashire.

He relocated to Hounslow, Middlesex, with his parents and older brother Arthur when he was eight years old, and got a job helping the milkman, which paid about five shillings.

June Collins, mother of Phil Collins, noticed him while he was playing football with his brother in the park.

Both Jack and Arthur were enrolled at the Barbara Speake Stage School, a private school in Acton, west London, by June Collins.

Jack Wild Personal life

At the Barbara Speake stage school, Wild met Welsh-born actress Gaynor Jones when they were both around 12 years old.

He didn’t see her again until Christmas of 1970, after he left in 1966.

They tied the knot on February 14, 1976. She divorced him in 1985 due to his heavy drinking. He met his second wife, Claire L. Harding, when working with her in the Worthing production of Jack and the Beanstalk.

In September 2005, they tied the knot in Bedford. Wild was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2001 and blamed his drinking and smoking habits for the ailment.

In July 2004, he received urgent treatment and had his tongue and voice box removed, rendering him speechless. For the rest of his life, Wild had to communicate through his wife Claire.

Jack excess alcoholism

Wild had become an alcoholic at the age of 21 in 1973. He spent a few years with his retired father after squandering his remaining fortune.

His drunkenness resulted in three heart arrests and countless hospitalizations.

On March 14, 1983, he was diagnosed with diabetes. His drinking damaged his career as well as his marriage to Gaynor Jones, who left him in 1985 due to his drinking.

He used to drink three to four bottles of vodka every week in the mid-1980s, and he would drink half a bottle of vodka and two bottles of wine every day.

He eventually admitted that his alcoholism had crippled him to the point where he couldn’t work.

He once went to Pete Townshend’s drying-out clinic for drug addicts and alcoholics, but after six weeks of being “dry,” he bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate his newfound sobriety.

Wild became sober on March 6, 1989, after attending the Alcoholics Victorious support group.

Jack death cause

Wild died on March 1, 2006, just before midnight, after a protracted fight with mouth cancer.

He is buried in Bedfordshire’s Toddington Parish Cemetery. Following a procedure that severed his vocal cords and a portion of his tongue, he was unable to speak for the last two years of his life.

He and his wife, Claire, were working on his memoirs at the time of his death.

“All the information was there when Jack died; all it needed was rearrangement, editing, and, in some places, writing out from transcripts Jack and I made while we taped him talking about his life,” she explained.

It’s a Dodger’s Life, with a prologue by Billie Hayes, an afterword by Clive Francis, and an epilogue by Wild’s wife, was published in 2016 with a foreword by Billie Hayes, an afterword by Clive Francis, and an epilogue by Wild’s wife.

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