John Megna

John F. Megna (November 9, 1952 – September 4, 1995) was an American actor, director and teacher. His best known role is that of "Dill" in the film To Kill a Mockingbird.

John Anthony Megna was born in Ozone Park, Queens, New York, to Ralph W. Megna, a pharmacist[citation needed], and Eleanor McGinley, a one-time nightclub singer. He was a half-brother of Connie Stevens and an ex-brother-in-law of Eddie Fisher. He attended Holy Cross High School in Flushing, New York.

At age 6, Megna made his acting debut in Frank Loesser's Broadway musical Greenwillow.[1] At 7, he starred in All the Way Home,[1] an adaptation of James Agee's novel about the effect of a father's death on his family.[2] This led to his being cast as Charles Baker "Dill" Harris, the toothy young summer visitor in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. The character was based on writer Truman Capote, a childhood friend and later associate of Harper Lee, the author of the original novel.[3]

Megna appeared in many television programs throughout the 1960s and 1970s; he portrayed a near-blind child in the Naked City episode "A Horse Has a Big Head - Let Him Worry!", one of the "Onlies" in the "Miri" episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, Stephan in I Spy (1967), and Little Adam in the NASA-produced animated shorts The Big World of Little Adam.

His other film appearances include Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) with John Travolta, and Go Tell the Spartans (1978) with Burt Lancaster. He also acted in two car-chase films starring Burt Reynolds and directed by Hal Needham – Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and The Cannonball Run (1981).

Megna graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, as a performing arts major.

As an adult, he turned to directing plays. He was the founding director of L.A. Arts, a nonprofit theater group in Los Angeles.[3] He later became a high school English teacher, and last taught at James Monroe High School in North Hills, California.[4] He also taught Honors English at Hollenbeck Jr High in Boyle Heights.

John Megna died from AIDS-related complications on September 4, 1995, at Midway Hospital in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 42.[2]