Entertainer and Diplomat

I was born in 1928 and began my career three years later. I starred in over 40 films during the 1930s. For four solid years, I was the top-grossing box office star in America. I was the first recipient of the special Juvenile Performer Academy Award in 1935. Seventy years later, I was still the youngest performer ever to receive this honor. I was also the youngest actor to add foot and hand prints to the forecourt at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
In my career in entertainment, I starred in 14 Short films, 43 Feature Films and over 25 storybook movies in a career that spanned from 1931 until 1961.
President Richard Nixon appointed me as a US Delegate to the United Nations in 1969, which began my long career in U.S. International Relations.
I was appointed American ambassador to Ghana in 1974 and served through 1976. In 1976, I became the Chief of Protocol of the United States, which put in me charge of all State Department ceremonies, visits, gifts to foreign leaders and co-ordination of protocol issues with all US embassies and consulates. I was ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992 and witnessed the Velvet Revolution. In 1987 I was designated the first Honorary Foreign Service Officer in US history by then US Secretary of State, George Schultz.
I received honorary doctorates from Santa Clara University and Lehigh University, a Fellowship from the College of Notre Dame, and a Chubb Fellowship from Yale University.
In the late 60's I was a member of the U.S. Citizens' Space Task Force, chaired by the U.S. Vice President. We discussed the future of the space program for the next decade. We were very much in favor of an unmanned space "Grand Tour," and development and building of a space station.