Why do so many child actors grow up to be shorter than average?

Member
TinyWizard
Short Squire
Height: 5'5
Location: PIttsburgh, United States
Joined: Apr 05, 2014
Posts: 59
Reactions: 20
Score: 7 | 1
KingCash: 23

Offline

Question
Why do so many child actors grow up to be shorter than average?
post #1

Danielle Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Tom Cruise, Edward Furlong (John Connor from Terminator 2), Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone), Lorenz Tate (21 Jump Street) and Nick Jonas are a few that come to mind. Any idea as to why that is, or am I just cherry picking?

Member
FatBanger
Short Page
Height: 5'6
Location: Bronx, United States
Joined: Apr 20, 2014
Posts: 11
Reactions: 0
Score: 0 | 0
KingCash: 0

Offline

Re: Why do so many child actors grow up to be shorter than average?
post #2

I think you are cherry picking. Those former child actors "stand out" to you because they are short. Jaleel White (Steve Urkel from Family Matters), Malcolm Jamal Warner (Theo from the Cosby Show), Mark Paul Gosselaar (Zack from Saved By The Bell) and Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham from Happy Days) were also child actors and all grew up to be pretty tall. 

Member
d11221
Height: 0'0
Joined: Aug 17, 2016
Posts: 75
Reactions: 0
Score: 0 | 0
KingCash: 0

Offline

Re: Why do so many child actors grow up to be shorter than average?
post #3

Ron Howard is not tall, and Mark Paul Goesslar was not really a child star, more of a "teenage" star, and I honestly wonder this as well, it DEFINETLY seems like if a kid is a child star he seems shorter than normal for the most part as an adult, I honestly wonder if there are other factors, perhaps a "mental" reason which stunts a persons growth? I have different theories but I do not really feel like going into it, I am not a child actor or nothing close to that but I think my growth was stunted for different reasons that went on in my childhood home, like if I had been born and adopted in a family that was loving and giving me room to grow as a person I think I could have been around my dad and my brothers height of 6 Feet instead of the 5 foot 6 I am 

 

Scott Schwartz, David Faustino, Haley Joel Osmoent, Frankie Muniz are others that come to mind who were child stars who seem to be signficantly shorter than average, I am sure if I think about it or do a little research there will be others, as said I do not think it is a coincidence and I think there are social-psychological conditions that can stunt a persons physical growth

Last Edited By d11221 (2018-07-26 00:50:49)

Member
alexvs
Cadet
Height: 0'0
Joined: Jul 14, 2018
Posts: 5
Reactions: 0
Score: 0 | 0
KingCash: 0

Offline

Re: Why do so many child actors grow up to be shorter than average?
post #4

Quote:

Originally posted by TinyWizard

Danielle Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Tom Cruise, Edward Furlong (John Connor from Terminator 2), Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone), Lorenz Tate (21 Jump Street) and Nick Jonas are a few that come to mind. Any idea as to why that is, or am I just cherry picking?

You aren't cherry picking as such, although as has been pointed out there are plenty of examples of child stars that aren't short.  However, what happens a lot with child actors is that for a child character of a particular age, an older short child is cast instead of an average height kid that is the same age as the character.  This makes sense since an older short kid will be more mature and easier to direct than a same age average height kid.  There are even tropes about this, such as the "Teens are short" trope on TVTropes.com.

Member
Suarez223
Short Knight
Height: 5'6
Location: Bronx, United States
Joined: Sep 01, 2014
Posts: 112
Reactions: 0
Score: 9 | 0
KingCash: 48

Offline

Re: Why do so many child actors grow up to be shorter than average?
post #5

David Faustino from Married With Children is 5'3. As a teen on the show, his height was always a point for jokes and insults.