In Search of . . . Jack Wild

Jack Wild--who was just 15 when he was nominated as best supporting actor for his work as the Artful Dodger in the Oscar-winning musical “Oliver!” (1968)--is back working in features after a 10-year absence. A decade battling alcoholism hurt his career, he admits, but he’s been sober for 18 months--and Hollywood has come calling.

Now 38, Wild spoke to us from his home in Richmond, near London, where he’s currently playing the Miller’s Son, one of the Merry Men in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” starring Kevin Costner.

“I’m still dressed in rags (as he was in ‘Oliver!’),” laughs the 5-foot-6 Wild. “I just can’t get away from them. But this time, I don’t have a top hat.”

Wild landed the role of the singing, dancing, pocket-picking Artful Dodger after 18 months in the West End production of the hit play, in which he played one of Fagin’s gang of rag-tag boys.

As the Dodger, he wore two-inch heels, to make him taller than Mark Lester, who played Oliver.

“A role--and a movie like that--comes along once in a lifetime,” he says, somewhat wistfully. “I know that now. When I did the role, I didn’t know what an Oscar meant to an actor.”

Following “Oliver!,” Wild starred for three years in the Sid and Marty Krofft-produced children’s TV series, “H.R. Pufnstuf.” He also did a spate of films in his homeland, as well as considerable TV and stage work. But through the years, he worked less and less. His last feature was 10 years ago--the British musical, “Alice,” based on “Alice in Wonderland.”

Currently a member of a Christian support group for alcoholics, he’s lined up a major role in the West End musical “Heavens Up” to follow his turn in “Prince of Thieves.”

And next year, the divorced Wild plans to marry for the second time. His fiancee, nanny Lisa Ward, has “stuck by me through thick and thin,” he says. “I am very fortunate.”

Also fortunate that he gets a second career chance.

“Now I’m back with a vengeance--fully fit and raring to go.”