Child Actor. A native of Seattle, Washington, as Douglas Malcolm Wheatcroft. A popular curly-haired child actor of the 1940s, Douglas Croft was the first actor to play the roles of ‘Robin, the Boy Wonder’ and ‘Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson,’ the sidekick of crime fighter Batman. An actor under contract to the Warner Brothers Studio, he played the role of ‘Robin’ as a boy in the 1943 film, “The Batman,” with Lewis Wilson playing the role of ‘Batman’ and ‘Bruce Wayne,’ some 20 years before Burt Ward did the television series of the 1960s. Croft’s other roles include the films, “Remember The Day” (1941), “Kings Row” (1942), “Not A Ladies Man” (1942), “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (George M. Cohan at age 13, 1942), “Flight Lieutenant” (1942), “The Pride Of The Yankess” (Lou Gehrig as a boy, 1942), “George Washington Slept Here” (1942), “Harrigan’s Kid” (1943), “Presenting Lily Mars” (1943), “River Gang” (1945), and “Killer McCoy” (1947). In 1974, he was also featured in the film, “The Three Stooges Follies.” A veteran of World War II, he served in the United States Army. Croft passed away at the age of 37, and was buried in the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, in San Diego, California.