William Paul Petersen (born September 23, 1945 in Glendale, California) is an American movie actor, singer, novelist, and activist for child stars. September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Nickname: The Jewel City Location of Glendale within Los Angeles County and the State of California. ...

Early career

Paul Petersen started out in show business at the age of ten when he became a "Mousketeer" on the Mickey Mouse Club. However, he achieved stardom as a teenage heartthrob on The Donna Reed Show, an ABC family sitcom that ran from 1958 to 1966. The Mickey Mouse Club was a long-running American variety television series that began in the 1950s, produced and televised by Walt Disney Productions and featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Donna Reed Show was a situation comedy which aired on ABC from 1958 to 1966. ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ...

Singing career

Petersen's fame brought recording offers and although his singing voice was limited, he had hit record singles with songs such as My Dad, She Can't Find Her Keys, Amy, and Lollipops and Roses that made it into the Billboard Hot 100. A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ... The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. ...

College education and authorship

Cover for Paul Petersen's novel The Smugglers #1

Difficult times followed his almost instantaneous disappearance from the Hollywood spotlight. As a result, Petersen returned to university and obtained a degree in literature that helped him to go on to write sixteen adventure novels. Image File history File links Smugglers_cover. ... Image File history File links Smugglers_cover. ... ...

Petersen's authorship began after he met David Oliphant, a New York publisher visiting Los Angeles. His first novel concerned car racing. Thereafter, he created a Matt Helm-type hero, Eric Saveman, also known as "The Smuggler." In one year, Pocket Books published eight of his Smuggler novels, earning Petersen $75,000. NY redirects here. ... Matt Helm as depicted on the back cover of The Wrecking Crew, 1960 Matt Helm, a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton, is a U.S. government counteragent—a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary... The film starred William Garwood the film starred Florence La Badie The Smuggler was a 1911 American silent short romantic drama. ... Pocket Books is the name of a subdivision of Simon & Schuster publishers. ...

Activism

In 1990, he founded the child-actor support group called A Minor Consideration.

External links

• Paul Petersen Official Website
• A Minor Consideration