Why are stage parents such grifters? It happened to Shirley Temple too. Shirley was a survivor and became a lifelong conservative. She married a doctor and had a long and happy marriage.
Here is a paragraph about Jackie Coogan from Britannica:
"In 1935 he was the sole survivor of an auto accident in which his father and three others were killed. In 1938 he sued his mother and stepfather (his former business manager), only to learn that his parents had spent virtually all of his multimillion-dollar fortune. The larger result was that the California legislature enacted the Child Actors Bill, popularly called the “Coogan Law,” ensuring child movie actors such rights as having their contracts approved by the courts and their income governed by financial institutions.During World War II Coogan served in the U.S. Army Air Force. In later years he played character roles in various films and television programs, most notably as Uncle Fester in the television series The Addams Family (1964–66)."
On D-Day, he was one of the pilots flying troop gliders into Normandy.