The histories of Kurt Russell and Natalie Wood aside, a significant percentage of child actors haven’t transitioned all that successfully into adult TV and movie careers. By all accounts poor Lee Aaker, the ‘50s star of The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, was one of Hollywood’s less enterprising (or less lucky) fortunate sons.
After his career fizzled out in the mid ‘60s Aaker did this and that (including carpentry). The fact that he passed two weeks ago at age 77 and the world is only just hearing about it now is instructive. Ditto the following paragraph from his Wiki page:
