Saturday, March 11, 2023

SIDNEY KIBRICK: THE LAST LITTLE RASCAL

As of the death of child star Robert Blake on March 9, 2023 - former actor Sidney Kibrick has become the last surviving member of the Our Gang series. Sidney most notably appeared in the Our Gang short subjects film series, over a ten-year period from 1933 and 1943.

Kibrick was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 2, 1928. He attended Mount Vernon Junior High. Kibrick made a brief non-dialogue appearance as an extra in the feature film Dead End, observed as one of three or so children huddled together during one of the river dock scenes. He made his uncredited film debut in Out all Night (1933), and after a few more uncredited roles was cast in 1935 in Our Gang, from 1937 to 1939, in that series he portrayed "Woim" (a vernacular pronunciation of "worm"), the sidekick of the neighborhood bully "Butch", played by Tommy Bond.


Kibrick worked as a real estate developer and architect after leaving show business in the 1940s. He kept in touch with Our Gang members at reunions, some of which he used to host. In 1991, he acknowledged that he had avoided the tragic lives that former child actors often ended up having as adults. As Sidney got older, his roles became limited. He made his last appearance on film un credited in the 1943 movie Keep 'Em Slugging.

Admittedly, Sidney stayed friends with George McFarland for years, but never liked Carl Switzer, who he refers to as being disagreeable. Sidney has looked back fondly on his time as a child actor, but knows he lucked out by having a normal adult life compared to some of his other Our Gang co-stars...






1 comment:

  1. And now there is only one. Sidney should have more acclaim for this. He can recall Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy watching him perform on the set! May Sidney live a continuing long life.

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