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The Testimony of:
Jack Wild
(Oliver!, HR Puff'n'Stuff, S.W.A.L.K, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves)

My brother and I were playing one day in a park in Hounslow, when a woman approached us and asked if we were interested in acting on stage and television. We thought she was crackers, but we said we would ask our parents.
She gave us a telephone number to ring if we decided we wanted to do some acting. So we went home and told our parents what the woman had said, and they told us we could go ahead if we wanted to. So a phone call later and we were both at stage school!

Our first stage production was the musical Oliver, where Phil Collins (of Genesis) played the part of the Artful Dodger. We both had parts and Arthur starred as Oliver! Two years later I was offered a part in the film version and although I took three months to learn the dance routines. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did do other T.V. and film work which eventually took me to Hollywood - where it all began to go wrong!

In Hollywood it seems that people either get involved with drugs or drink. I chose what I thought was the lesser of the two evils - drink, but in actual fact taken to excess it is just as bad as drugs!
The telephone stopped ringing with offers of work as the news got around that I was an alcoholic. If the offers had come I wasn't in a fit state to work anyway!

The drink problem lasted for twelve years. A few years later when I became a Christian the problem became a thing of the past.
I am now working again and have been back in the West End of London. I have also started a centre, to help alcoholics and have named it ALCOHOLIC VICTORIOUS!


Sadly, for those left behind, Jack went to be with the Lord he loved in March 2006, aged 53.

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