Sherwood Bailey (August 6, 1923 – August 6, 1987) was an American

child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage, television, or in film, movies. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associa ...

and

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

. His parents were nonprofessionals. He is most noted for appearing as Spud, the red-headed, freckle-faced bad boy and enemy of the gang in the ''

Our Gang ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, who also pr ...

'' short subjects series from 1931 to 1932. Spud was characterized as the mama's-boy type who got away with everything and who also liked the girls a lot. Bailey's most notable appearance was that of the spoiled, bratty stepbrother of Wheezer and Dorothy in 1931's '' Dogs Is Dogs''. In that short, he is nearly convinced by Stymie that

ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...

and eggs can talk and is later pushed down a well by his own dog, Nero. Bailey left the Our Gang series in 1932 at the age of nine. Bailey quietly left the film industry in 1956. Before retiring from his professional acting career in 1956, Bailey appeared in a few movies, including '' The Big Stampede'' (1932) with John Wayne, '' Too Many Parents'' (1936), and '' Young Tom Edison'' (1940) with Mickey Rooney. He graduated from Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, then studied engineering at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

but did not graduate. He later earned his state civil engineering license and worked as a civil engineer in Huntington Beach.

Death

He died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

on his 64th birthday. Maltin, Leonard and Bann, Richard W. (1977, rev. 1992). ''The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang'', p. 279. New York: Crown Publishing/Three Rivers Press.

References

External links

*
LA Times Obituary for Sherwood Bailey
American male child actors American male film actors Deaths from cancer in California 1923 births 1987 deaths 20th-century American male actors Hal Roach Studios actors University of California, Los Angeles alumni American civil engineers Long Beach Polytechnic High School alumni {{US-film-actor-1920s-stub