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Subj:   Our Gang Comedies (S488)          From: LABLaughsClean on 5/25/2006      and From: tom on 5/30/2008 Source: http://www.lablaughs.com/clean_toon.php?id=C19950516      to http://www.lablaughs.com/clean_toon.php?id=C19950607     What ever happened to the 29 child actors who were regulars (i.e., appeared in fifteen or more installments) of the 221 Our Gang comedies (also known as The Little Rascals) produced between 1922 and 1944.  This information was compiled from Leonard Maltin's book (The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang), the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), and various news accounts by Snops at http://www.snopes.com/movies/other/ourgang.asp Did many of them die prematurely?  Was there a curse? . Carl Dean Switzer ("Alfalfa"): Appeared in 61 installments. Worked at playing bit parts in film and television, tending bar, and serving as a hunting guide. Shot to death at age 31 in a dispute over a $50 debt. Norman Myers Chaney ("Chubby"): Appeared in 32 installments. Died of a glandular ailment in early adulthood. (Maltin reports he was 18 years old at the time of his death; IMDb lists him as being 22.)  William Thomas, Jr. ("Buckwheat"): Appeared in 93 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as a film laboratory technician. Died of a heart attack at age 49. Darla Hood ("Darla"): Appeared in 42 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business as a singer/songwriter and voice-over artist. Died of hepatitis at age 47.   Kendall McComas (Breezy Brisbane): Kendall McComas doesn't really belong here, because he appeared in a mere handful (8) of Our Gang films.  Kendall did eventually commit suicide (reportedly because he was despondent over his forced retirement), he still enjoyed quite successful post-Rascals careers in show business and electrical engineering, and he was a few weeks short of his 65th birthday at the time of his death.  William Laughlin ("Froggy"): Appeared in 40 installments. Killed at age 16 when his bicycle was hit from behind by a truck.  Richard Daniels, Jr. ("Mickey"): Appeared in 49 installments. Continued to work in show business in his post-Rascals career, then entered the engineering field and largely dropped out of sight after moving to Africa. Spent the last three years of his life as a taxi driver before dying alone in a San Diego hotel room of cirrhosis of the liver at age 55. Matthew Beard, Jr.("Stymie"): Appeared in 36 installments. Had post-Rascal problems with drug addiction and served time in prison, eventually underwent successful rehabilitation and returned to show business. Died of pneumonia at age 56.  Scott Beckett ("Scotty"): Appeared in 15 installments. Suffered post-Rascals problems with divorce, violence, alcohol, drugs, and crime. Committed suicide by barbiturate overdose at age 38. Robert E. Hutchins ("Wheezer"): Appeared in 58 installments. Joined the Army Air Corps and died just short of age 20 when his plane crashed on landing during a training exercise. Tommy Bond ("Butch"): Appeared in 27 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in television directing and production work. Died of heart disease at age 79. . Robert Blake: ("Mickey," but inexplicably listed as "Spanky"):  Appeared in 40 installments. Very long and successful post-Rascals career in show business. Arrested in April 2002 for the murder of his wife; acquitted at trial in March 2005. Still alive at age 71. But MOST of the 29 child actors either are still alive, or lived to an old age.   George Robert McFarland ("Spanky"): Appeared in 95 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as a sales manager with Philco-Ford and a lecturer. Died of a heart attack at age 64.  Ernest Frederic Morrison ("Sunshine Sammy"): Appeared in 28 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business and aerospace industry. Died of cancer at age 76.   John Condon ("Jackie"): Appeared in 28 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as an accountant. Died of cancer at age 59. John H. Davis: ("Jackie"): Appeared in 19 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as a doctor. Died at age 78.    Allen Clayton Hoskins, Jr. ("Farina"): Appeared in 105 installments. Successful post-Rascals career as a psychological technician. Died of cancer at age 59. Andy Samuel ("Andy"): Appeared in 86 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business and art store management. Died at age 82.   Mary A. Kornman ("Mary"): Appeared in 41 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business. Died of cancer at age 57.  Jerry Tucker: Appeared in 36 installments. Successful post-Rascals career with RCA. Still alive at age 81.   Joe Cobb ("Joe"): Appeared in 86 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in aerospace. Died at age 85. Darwood Kaye ("Waldo"): Appeared in 21 installments. Had a successful post-Rascals career in show business before joining the ministry. Killed by a hit-and-run driver at age 72.   John Morey Downs ("Johnny"): Appeared in 24 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business and real estate. Died of cancer at age 80. . Jay R. Smith ("Jay"): Appeared in 36 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in the retail business. Stabbed to death in Las Vegas at age 87 by a homeless man whom he had befriended. Jean Darling ("Jean"): Appeared in 35 installments. Successful post-Rascals career in show business and mystery writing. Still alive at age 84. Harry Spear ("Harry"): Appeared in 58 installments. Post-Rascals activities unknown. Maltin reports rumors that he was working in a bank or had become a surgeon; IMDb lists him as dying in 1969 at age 46; other sources claim he is still alive but denies being a former Little Rascal. Mary Ann Jackson ("Mary Ann"): Appeared in 32 installments. Married, raised two children, and died of a heart attack at age 80. Jackie Cooper: Appeared in 32 installments. Very long and successful post-Rascals career in films and television. Still alive at age 84.  Dorothy DeBorba ("Echo"): Appeared in 32 installments. Married, raised two children, worked as a clerk at UC Berkeley. Still alive at age 82. Eugene Gordon Lee ("Porky"): Appeared in 42 installments. Operates a merchandise licensing company. Still alive at age 71.    So, what do we find? Analyzing the information about the 28 Our Gang child stars described above (we've omitted Harry Spear from consideration because we can't reliably determine whether he's still alive or when he might have died), we calculate the following: 54% of the actors are still alive or lived to be at least 72 years old. 75% of the actors reached the average life expectancy at birth for persons of their time.    82% of the actors lived until at least their late 40s. (This may not sound like much by modern standards, but it's a significant figure given that the average life expectancy at birth for most of the actors listed here was in the mid-50s range.) On the "tragic" side, we find that:  Three of the actors (11%) were victims of homicides (although two of the three were already well advanced in age at the time of their deaths).  Two of the actors (7%) were killed in accidents (and one of them was a military pilot, a high-risk occupation).  One of the actors (4%) committed suicide.    Two of the actors (7%) died prematurely from medical ailments.  Two of the actors (7%) had significant problems with substance abuse (and related crimes). Although these percentages are much higher than one would expect to find among the general population, they're not at all out of line with reasonable expectations given the extremely small sample size (28) used here. One man's "curse" is another man's normal cross-section of society.  . The above information was verified with Snopes.com at http://www.snopes.com/movies/other/ourgang.asp

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