George McFarland | |
|---|---|
 McFarland as "Spanky" in Our Gang Follies of 1938 | |
| Born | October 2, 1928 Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | June 30, 1993 (aged 64)[3][4] Grapevine, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation | Child actor |
| Years active | 1931–1944 |
| Spouse |
Doris McFarland (m. 1967) |
| Children | 3 |
George Robert Philips McFarland (October 2, 1928 – June 30, 1993)[6] was an American actor most famous for starring as a child as Spanky in Hal Roach's Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The Our Gang shorts were later syndicated to television as The Little Rascals.
In addition to his work in Our Gang and its feature-film spin-off General Spanky (1936), McFarland regularly appeared in co-starring or supporting juvenile roles in feature films produced by other studios throughout the 1930s. These included Kentucky Kernels (1934) with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) with Sylvia Sidney and Fred MacMurray, and Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1938). Leaving acting as a teenager, McFarland had several varying careers as an adult before finding success as a sales executive. He spent the final decades of his life as a public speaker reflecting on his child-acting career.[7]
- ^ Donald Clarke (1987). West to Eden: Texans in Hollywood. p. 13.
- ^ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 107.
- ^ Speed, F.M.; Cameron-Wilson, J. (1994). Film Review. W. H. Allen. p. 174. ISBN 9780863698422. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ^ Monush, Barry (August 13, 2018). Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the silent era to 1965. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 9781557835512 – via Google Books.
- ^ Barron, James (July 1993). "Spanky McFarland, 64, Actor In the 'Our Gang' Comedies". The New York Times.
- ^ George Robert Phillips McFarland. Texas State Cemetery
- ^ Maltin, Leonard and Bann, Richard W. (1977, rev. 1992). The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang, p. 261-263. New York: Crown Publishing/Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-517-58325-9