Jack Wild is best remembered for playing the Artful Dodger in the 1968 film Oliver!, a role that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at just 16 years old, along with BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for the same performance. Off the back of that breakout success he starred in the American children's television series H.R. Pufnstuf (1969) and its film adaptation, and went on to appear in Melody (1971) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). He also pursued a recording career in the early 1970s before focusing mainly on theatre work in his later years.