Hollywood icon died penniless after 164 episodes of hit show living off ‘meagre’ pension

Beloved 1950s child star Lee Aaker, who played Rusty on 'The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin', tragically died penniless from a stroke at the age of 77. Lee passed away in April 2021 and was found “alone and unclaimed, listed as an 'indigent decedent', meaning he was unable to afford his funeral expenses.

Lee’s career began spectacularly in 1951 at the age of eight when he appeared in the Oscar-winning short film 'Benji'. Three years later, the pint-sized star of 'High Noon' and 'The Greatest Show on Earth' was cast alongside a canine castmate in TV’s 'Rin Tin Tin', which ran until 1959. However, his acting career declined after the series ended, and by the age of 20, he was already considered a Hollywood has-been.

“My folks had al­ways told me that my ca­reer might not last, but when it hap­pened, it was still a hard thing for me to ad­just to,” Lee re­called.

However, in a 2011 interview, Lee shared he quit Hollywood because he got "so famous" he couldn't leave the house without being stopped by people.

He said at the time: "I retired at the age of 18. I didn't like the Hollywood scene. I'm a very private person. I got so famous that I couldn't leave the house. You see all the paparazzi now, but it wasn't as bad back then. Other kids, I would go out on a date or a football game or something, and I ended up signing autographs."

After the end of his acting career, he served in the Air Force and later worked as a car­pen­ter and ski instructor. Unfortunately, like many other child stars, he also strug­gled with drugs and al­co­hol.

In the end, in­sid­ers revealed that Lee was liv­ing off a $1,500 monthly pen­sion from the Screen Ac­tors Guild and any money he could scrounge up by work­ing fan con­ven­tions. Sources said he had only one liv­ing rel­a­tive, who was un­able to help him fi­nan­cially. But his friend Paul Peterson, a former teen heartthrob, in­sisted that Lee would re­ceive a proper send-off.

“As an Air Force vet­eran, Lee is en­ti­tled to burial ben­e­fits,” he said. “I am work­ing on that.”