Los Angeles, USA
Lee Aaker, who was a child star thanks to the series ‘Rin Tin Tin’, has died at the age of 77 in Mesa (Arizona) due to a heart attack.
The news was revealed by fellow actor Paul Petersen via a Facebook post. “I’m saying goodbye to Lee Aaker. You must be a certain age to remember ‘Rin Tin Tin’. Lee Aaker died in Arizona on April 1, alone and without anyone to claim him, listed as a ‘destitute deceased.’ As an Air Force veteran, Lee is entitled to benefits for his burial. I am working on that, “he posted.
Born in Inglewood, California in 1943, Aaker was discovered by director Fred Zinnemann and selected for his short film Benjy, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film in 1951. Zinnemann had Aaker make an appearance in his most iconic film, Sun in Danger, starring Gary Cooper.
After appearing with John Wayne in the western Fondo in 1953 and alongside Barbara Stanwyck in Woman’s Trick, Aaker landed the role of his life playing Rusty ‘Rin Tin Tin’, a series that aired between 1954 and 1959.
When he finished fiction, the then teenager got several cameos in TV series like ‘Donna Reed’s Show’ or ‘Route 66’. Her last credit dates back to 1963, when she appeared in an episode of ‘Lucy’s Show’. He later left Hollywood, enlisted in the Air Force and made a living as a carpenter.