Jean Darling, Child Actress in 'Our Gang' Comedies, Dies at 93

Jean Darling, the cute blond girl who appeared in dozens of Our Gang silent comedy shorts starting at age 4, has died. She was 93.
Darling, who later originated the role of Carrie Pipperidge in the original cast of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s famed musical comedy Carousel, died Friday in Rodgau, Germany, writer-director Rene Riva confirmed to The New York Times. In 2013, she appeared in his silent slapstick short film, The Butler’s Tale.

Born Dorothy Jean LaVake in Santa Monica, Darling was spotted by an assistant of Our Gang producer Hal Roach and made her first appearance as the tyke named Jean in the 1927 silent Bring Home the Turkey. Her character often was the object of the boys’ affections.

Darling left the Our Gang series just as sound was being introduced to the movies.

“The crossover to talkies was just idiocy on the part of the producers,” Darling said in Tony Villecco’s 2001 book Silent Stars Speak: Interviews With Twelve Cinema Pioneers. “Instead of thinking a star could go on and have some voice coaching, they would immediately drop anyone on the first squawk. They went to the stage and brought over stage actors because they would have good voices.”

Darling played the title character as a child in Jane Eyre (1934) and appeared in Babes in Toyland with Laurel & Hardy before headlining a vaudeville act and studying opera.

After making her Broadway debut in Count Me In opposite Jean Arthur in 1942, Darling portrayed Julie Jordan’s pal Carrie in the original cast of 1945's Carousel, working 850 consecutive performances at one point. Her big number was the song, "(When I Marry) Mister Snow."

In 1954, Darling married Reuben Bowen, also known as Kajar the Magician, and they moved to Dublin in 1974. She wrote mystery and crime stories for magazines, voiced the character of Aunty Poppy for RTE radio plays in Ireland and moved to Rodgau to be with her son, Roy, who survives her.

Dickie Moore, Child Actor in 'Oliver Twist,' Dies at 89

Dickie Moore, the child actor who was famous for his role as the title character in 1933’s Oliver Twist, has died, according to the New York Times. He was 89.

Moore, who also was known as one of Hal Roach’s Little Rascals and starred in numerous Our Gang shorts, died Thursday. His wife, actress Jane Powell, said in a 2013 interview that he was suffering from arthritis and dementia.

Oliver Twist, which was directed by William J. Cowen and starred Irving Pichel, Doris Lloyd and William Boyd, was notable as the first film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic novel to have sound.

Moore’s film roles also included Blonde Venus (1932) with Marlene Dietrich, So Big! (1932) with Barbara Stanwyck, Million Dollar Legs (1932) with W.C. Fields, Winner Take All (1932) with James Cagney and Man’s Castle (1933) with Spencer Tracy. In 1942, he starred alongside Shirley Temple in Miss Annie Rooney, a film about a young woman (Temple) who falls in love with a rich teenager (Moore). The film featured Temple’s first onscreen kiss.

Born Sept. 12, 1925, Moore made his film debut as an 11-month-old baby in 1927’s The Beloved Rogue. By age 7, he had appeared in more than 20 films. But by the time he was a teenager, his film career slowed and he stopped acting by the 1950s. In the late ’60s, he founded his own public relations firm, Dick Moore Associates, in New York.

Moore met his third wife, Powell, whom he married in 1988, when he interviewed her for his 1984 book Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (But Don’t Have Sex or Take the Car), which features interviews with such child actors as Mickey Rooney, Natalie Wood, Jackie Coogan and Powell.

In a 1984 interview about the book, Moore said, “We were all very isolated. Shirley Temple told me she thought all children worked. … Many of us thought that was all there was. And we were in competition, too, of course. There was a big feeling of competition, and friendships were not encouraged.”

He is survived by his wife, Powell.