George McFarland

She is not related to Spank. Partial Filmography:. Note: Folk-rock singer Elaine McFarlane is known as "Spanky" from her tenure in the group Spanky and Our Gang, which was named in honor of the film troupe. by his wife for interrment in the Southborough Rural Cemetery. His brother Tommy, who was also named after their father (Thomas Emmett McFarland), passed away in 1982, and McFarland died of a heart attack on June 30, 1993 followed by his mother just 30 days later. Following cremation in Sweden, his ashes were brought back to the U.S. Other biographies incorrectly report his middle name as being Emmett; however this was his father's middle name. Warner Oland and his wife made a historic farmhouse near the village of Southborough, Massachusetts their primary residence.

His middle names came from family names, Robert after his father and Phillips was his mother's maiden name (George was his father's brother's name). While there, he contacted bronchial pneumonia and hampered by the apparent onset of emphysema from years of heavy cigarette smoking, he passed away at a hospital in Stockholm. In later years some in his family affectionately would refer to him as just "Spank". Signed to a new contract by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation to make three more Charlie Chan films, in early 1938 Oland's health problems worsened and he spent several weeks in hospital then took time off to travel to his native Sweden. In January 1994, "Spanky" became the only Our Gang member to receive a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Despite his wealth and success, Oland suffered from alcoholism that severely affected his heath and his thirty-year marriage. He played the role of an enterprising kid in the series and the de facto leader of the gang. Although Oland did act in other films, the enormous worldwide box office success of his Charlie Chan film led to a Charlie Chan industry with Oland starring in sixteen films in total.

He was discovered at the age of three and soon became a regular and then most popular member of the children's comedy movie series Our Gang during the 1930s and 1940s. Firmly locked into oriental roles, he was cast as Charlie Chan in the 1931 international detective mystery film, Charlie Chan Carries On and then in director Josef von Sternberg's 1932 film, Shanghai Express. His nickname "Spanky" is said to have arisen from repeated warnings by his mother not to misbehave. Fu Manchu in three more films. Worth as many biographies report. A box office success, the film made Oland a star and during the next two years, he portrayed the evil Dr. McFarland was born in Dallas, Texas on October 2, 1928 - not in Ft. Fu Manchu.

George Robert Phillips McFarland (October 2, 1928 - June 30, 1993) was an American actor most famous for his childhood role as Spanky in the depression era children's comedy movie series Our Gang, also known as the Little Rascals. With a lack of skilled oriental actors available in Hollywood, he portrayed a variety of oriental characters in several movies before being offered the leading role in the 1929 film, The Mysterious Dr. Oland's facial features, aided by makeup, allowed him to easily play the part of oriental characters. Over the next fifteen years he appeared in more than thirty films, including a major role in 1927's The Jazz Singer, one of the first talkies produced. He made several more films with Pearl White including his first portrayal of an oriental character in her 1919 film, The Lightning Raider.