Lewis Sargent on AllMovie

Unlike predecessors Robert Gordon and Jack Pickford, who had both been too old for the role, tough-looking little Lewis Sargent became the screen's first truly convincing Huckleberry Finn. That was in 1920 and by then Sargent was already a two-year Hollywood veteran, having first gained notice as Ben Gunn in the Franklin brothers' all-kiddie Treasure Island (1918). Rangy and athletic, Lewis was viewed as a comer, but he lost the title role in Oliver Twist (1921) to Jackie Coogan (Sargent instead played Noah Claypoole), and true juvenile stardom would elude him. He did star in Universal's Lewis Sargent Comedies (1922) and was the young hero in a couple of actioners, The Fighting Fool (1927) and Racing Blood (1928), but those were all low-budget assignments. After playing a series of bit roles in the early talkie era, Sargent drifted out of films altogether.