Billy Watson 1923-2022

Billy Watson, Child Actor in ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ and ‘In Old Chicago,’ Dies at 98
He and his eight siblings appeared in hundreds of movies starting in the silent era, and his family has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.



Watson died Feb. 17 of natural causes at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, his family announced.

Watson was one of nine kids, and by the late 1930s, he and his siblings had appeared in hundreds of films. His family is the only one to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, getting their place on Hollywood Boulevard in 1999.

In Old Chicago (1938), Watson portrayed Don Ameche’s character as a boy, then was one of the sons of Gov. Hopper (Guy Kibbee), the man who appoints Jimmy Stewart’s Jefferson Smith to the Senate, in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). His real-life brothers Delmar, Harry and Garry were his brothers in the movie, too.