  We present {\it Hubble Space Telescope} {\it V,I} photometry of the central
region of the LMC cluster NGC 1866, reaching magnitudes as faint as V=27 mag.
We find evidence that the cluster luminosity function shows a strong dependence
on the distance from the cluster center, with a clear deficiency of low
luminosity stars in the inner region. We discuss a {\it global} cluster
luminosity function as obtained from stars in all the investigated region,
which appears in impressive agreement with the prediction from a Salpeter mass
distribution. We also revisit the use of NGC 1866 as a probe for determining
the efficiency of core overshooting, and conclude that a definitive answer to
this question is not possible from this cluster.
