NORMAN CHANEY

Norman 'Chubby' Chaney was a child actor from 1929 to 1931. He appeared in Our Gang (Little Rascals) shorts as a replacement for Joe Cobb after winning a national talent contest at age 14, which was surely helped by his having a strong resemblance to Joe Cobb in both face and figure. Given that he looked very young at 14, we wonder if he wasn't perhaps a "little person". He appeared in 22 Our Gang movies over the next two years, including Love Business, Shivering Shakespeare, and Pups Is Pups. We don't know why he left the Our Gang cast, perhaps because he went through puberty! In any event, life did not go well for him and he passed away in 1936 at the age of 21 after heart problems. He was the first former Our Gang cast member to pass away, and he was the third youngest at the time of his death of all Our Gang cast members.