Freddie Bartholomew, 1930S Child Star

LOS ANGELES - Freddie Bartholomew, whose popularity as a 1930s child star of such films as "Little Lord Fauntleroy" failed to propel him into success an an adult actor, has died of emphysema in Florida. He was 67.

Mr. Bartholomew, who had retired in Bradenton, died Thursday, said his wife, Elizabeth.

Mickey Rooney, one of Bartholomew's childhood co-stars, said Hollywood can be unforgiving when childhood charm doesn't flower into classic film good looks.

"He was one of the finest, if not the finest child actor that we had on the scene at that time," said Rooney, who appeared with Mr. Bartholomew and Jackie Cooper in "The Devil is a Sissy," around 1936.

But "his handsomeness as a child just didn't translate" into adulthood, said Rooney, 71.

Mr. Bartholomew was born Frederick Llewellyn on March 28, 1924, in London. He first performed at age 4, when he recited a poem at a church social.

He later told interviewers that Millicent Bartholomew, an aunt who brought him up and from whom he took his name, took him on the rounds of British film studios. His first movie work was in two British productions, "Fascination," 1930, and "Lily Christine," 1932.

His aunt later took him to the United States, where MGM hired him when he was 10. He played the title role in "David Copperfield,' a production that also included W.C. Fields, and became an overnight star after the film opened in 1934.

Other films included "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in 1936, in which he played an American boy who discovers he is heir to an English dukedom, and "Captains Courageous" in 1937. He also played Greta Garbo's son in "Anna Karenina," 1935.

He was among the most popular child actors of the 1930s and early '40s, but he did not act in films past boyhood.

During World War II, he was a maintenance worker for B-17 bombers. He tried to revive his career after he was disharged, appearing at nightclubs and in summer theater.

In the early 1950s, Bartholomew was host of a daytime TV show. In 1954, he went to work for the Benton & Bowles advertising agency in New York, rising to vice president.