Appearances

Title	Role	Year	Approx. Age
Wagon's West	Ben Wilkins	1952	16
Buckaroo Sheriff of Texas and Arizona Manhunt	Red White	1951	15
Under California Stars	Ted Carver	1948	12
Song of Arizona	Cyclops	1946	10
The Fighting Sullivans	Neighbor Boy	1944	8

Michael Chapin, born in Los Angeles, found success as an actor early on when he was just ten years old, starring along-side Hollywood icons like Robert Mitchum, Gary Cooper and James Stewart. Chapin started off his career in The Fighting Sullivans (1944) and went on to do a role in the William Gargan crime feature "Night Editor" (1946) and film-noir dramas Call Northside 777 (1948) with James Stewart, and Strange Bargain (1949).

In 1951 at the age of fifteen he was signed for two Rough Ridin? Kids B-westerns with Eilene Janssen, as junior versions of Roy Rogers/Dale Evans (Buckaroo Sheriff of Texas and Arizona Manhunt) ? at least that?s what Republic hoped for. Trouble was, Saturday matinee kids wanted adult heroes like Roy, Rocky, Johnny Mack, etc. Kids didn?t cotton to seeing other kids their age as heroic figures firing guns. But Michael spent most of his acting career in Westerns because of his ability to ride horses. The most famous of these westerns is Under California Stars (1948) with Roy Rogers. He did one other Roy Rogers film: Song of Arizona (1946).

As a young adult he was featured in the Lloyd Bridges drama Pride of the Blue Grass (1954) and The Night of the Hunter (1955).

He retired from showbusiness in 1959 and is the older brother of Billy Chapin and Lauren Chapin.