NOW AND THEN: Former child star Rodney Allen Rippy today (top) and as a 7-year-old in1976 (bottom). (
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Rodney Allen Rippy might have lost his bid to become mayor of Compton, Calif., but he’s back in the news after a long time in anonymity.
The former child star was just 3 in 1972, when he became the toast of a generation as the pint-sized TV pitchman for the Jack In The Box fast-food chain — picking up a hamburger that looked as a big as a hubcap, trying to cram it into his mouth and saying, “Too bigga eat!,” spawning a national catchphrase.
Soon the cute, chubby-cheeked youngster was hanging out with Michael Jackson, making movie cameos and even recording a hit album, “Take Life a Little Easier.”
When the 1970s ended, so did Rippy’s career.
And although he finished 10th out of 12 candidates Thursday in Compton’s mayoral primary, his earnest campaign raised the inevitable question of where he had been.
When his TV career came to a close, he went to college and earned a marketing degree. “I wanted to continue to act, but at the time acting was a thing that unless you were really burning hot, you better have something on the back burner,” he says.
He formed Ripped Marketing Group in 2000 and has promoted everything from smokeless cigarettes to leisure wear — giving him the idea that he could promote Compton, too, by running for mayor. He wanted to change the image of a city that, though financially troubled, has seen crime and gang violence drop precipitously.
Unlike many other former child stars, Rippy never got into trouble.
“My mom always said, ‘Rodney, you need to understand this: It’s very easy to get into trouble. It’s very difficult to get out.’ ”