RODDY McDOWALL (Peter Vincent) is one of the few child stars who have successfully mastered the transition to adult actor, and in the process, he has become part of our collective film memory. Born in England, McDowall had already begun to carve out a niche for himself as a child actor in British films before his family moved to America. It was here, however, that the sad-eyed boy with the grown-up demeanor imprinted himself on film history in movies such as My Friend Flicka, Lassie Come Home and How Green Was My Valley.

     Shedding his image as a "juvenile," McDowall expanded during the 1950s into myriad roles on the Broadway stage, including Misalliance, No Time for Sergeants, Compulsion and Camelot, and on live television, which provided him "with opportunities and role variety that existed nowhere else." In 1960, he crowned his decade in New York with both a Tony Award (for his role in Jean Anouilh's The Fighting Cock) and an Emmy (for NBC's Night Without Honor).

     Since then, the actor known for both his consistency and professionalism has worked constantly in theater, film and television. McDowall has appeared in almost every major TV series of the past 20 years and well over 60 feature films, among them Midnight Lace, The Longest Day, Cleopatra, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Loved One, Inside Daisy Clover, the Planet of the Apes trilogy, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Funny Lady, CBS-TV's The Memory of Eve Ryker and Class of '84.