John Megna

John Anthony Megna (November 9, 1952 – September 5, 1995) was an American actor, director, and teacher born in Ozone Park, Queens, New York. His father, Ralph W. Megna, worked as a pharmacist, and his mother, Eleanor McGinley, had been a nightclub singer. Through his mother, Megna was a half-brother of singer Connie Stevens, making him an ex-brother-in-law of singer Eddie Fisher. He attended Holy Cross High School in Flushing, New York, and later graduated from Cornell University with a degree in performing arts.

Megna began his acting career on Broadway at the age of six, making his debut in Frank Loesser's musical Greenwillow. The following year, at age seven, he appeared in All the Way Home, a stage adaptation of James Agee's novel centering on the impact of a father's death on his family. Those early Broadway credits led directly to his most recognized screen role: Charles Baker "Dill" Harris in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. The character was modeled on writer Truman Capote, a childhood friend and later associate of Harper Lee, who authored the source novel.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Megna was active in television, with appearances that included a near-blind child in the Naked City episode "A Horse Has a Big Head - Let Him Worry!", one of the "Onlies" in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Miri," Stephan in I Spy in 1967, and Little Adam in the animated shorts The Big World of Little Adam. His film work during the same period included Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) alongside John Travolta, and Go Tell the Spartans (1978) with Burt Lancaster. He also appeared in two films directed by Hal Needham and starring Burt Reynolds: Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and The Cannonball Run (1981).

In his later career, Megna shifted focus to directing and education. He founded L.A. Arts, a nonprofit theater organization in Los Angeles, serving as its first director. He subsequently became a high school teacher, instructing English, Spanish, and history, and taught most recently at James Monroe High School in North Hills, California. He also taught Honors English at Hollenbeck Junior High in Boyle Heights. Megna was openly gay and died on September 5, 1995, from complications at Midway Hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 42.