| Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas | |
|---|---|
 Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas in the 1935 Our Gang comedy Teacher's Beau. Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. "The Little Rascals" redirects here For other uses see The Little Rascals (disambiguation. |
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| Born | March 12, 1931 Los Angeles, California |
| Died | October 10, 1980 (aged 49) Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | Film actor |
Billie Thomas (originally William Thomas, Jr. Events 538 - Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving Year 1931 ( MCMXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West Events 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works ) (March 12, 1931 – October 10, 1980) was an American child actor best remembered for portraying the character of Buckwheat in the Our Gang (Little Rascals) short films from 1934 until the series' end in 1944. Events 538 - Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving Year 1931 ( MCMXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the "The Little Rascals" redirects here For other uses see The Little Rascals (disambiguation. Short subject is a format description originally coined in the North American Film industry in the early period of cinema. He was a native of Los Angeles, California.
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Biography
Our Gang and later life
Although the character he played was often the subject of controversy in later years for containing elements of the "pickaninny" stereotype, Thomas always defended his work in the series, pointing out that Buckwheat and the rest of the black Our Gang kids were treated as equals with the white kids in the series. Pickaninny (also picaninny or piccaninny) is a term &ndash generally considered derogatory &ndash that in English usage refers to black children "The Little Rascals" redirects here For other uses see The Little Rascals (disambiguation. White People is the second album by Handsome Boy Modeling School. The 1980s Little Rascals animated series adapted from the Our Gang comedies addressed the problem by changing Buckwheat into a clever inventor who is always building ingenious machines for the gang. The Little Rascals was a 1982-1984 Saturday morning cartoon series produced jointly by Hanna-Barbera Productions and King World, and broadcast
After Our Gang was discontinued in 1944, Thomas played some small parts in other films, but soon left show business altogether. As an adult, he worked as a film lab technician with the Technicolor corporation. Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation Thomas died of a sudden heart attack in his Los Angeles apartment on October 10, 1980. Myocardial infarction ( MI or AMI for acute myocardial infarction) also known as a heart attack, occurs when the blood supply Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West Events 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) [1]
Impersonations, controversy and an imposter
Saturday Night Live
Three years after Thomas's death, his character was parodied by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live in a sketch that had Buckwheat as the target of an assassination. Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy (born April 3 1961 is an Academy Award -nominated Golden Globe - Screen Actors Guild Award -winning American Saturday Night Live ( SNL) is a weekly late-night 90-minute American Sketch comedy / Variety show based in New York City His assassin, "John David Stutts" (also played by Murphy), was in turn later assassinated in a scene that parallels Lee Harvey Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby. Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18 1939 &ndash November 24 1963 was according to three United States government investigations the assassin of U Jacob Rubenstein (March 25 1911 – January 3 1967 who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947 was an American Nightclub operator from The skit was a parody on the extensive media coverage of the then recent murder of John Lennon and the attempt on Ronald Reagan's life — in particular, the focus on excessive attention given to the assassins and tributes from people only loosely associated with the victim. John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (born
The real Buckwheat's son, William Thomas, Jr. , strongly protested Murphy's sketch. (Murphy's exaggerated portrayal of Buckwheat had the child actor supposedly retaining his tangled, unkempt hair and inarticulate speech even into adulthood. ) Murphy performed other parody skits as well, including a murder attempt by Alfalfa and an advertisement for a record, Buh-Weet Sings. Carl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer ( August 7, 1927 &ndash January 21, 1959) was an American Child actor, professional The latter skit contained the opening line which later became an SNL classic: "Hi, Ah'm Buh-Weet. Amembah me?" ("Hi, I'm Buckwheat. Remember me?") and Buckwheat performing popular music standards using stereotypical vernacular pronunciations(e. African American Vernacular English ( AAVE) – also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, g. , "Munce! Tice! Fee tines a mady"). " Three Times a Lady " is a 1978 single from the funk/soul band the Commodores, from their 1978 album Natural High. The record advertisement sketch was the first in the series of Murphy's sketches. It was performed on SNL exactly one year to the day after Thomas's death. Another Buckwheatism attributed to Murphy's inaccurate impersonation of the famous rascal, "O'Tay!", was actually invented by Eugene Gordon "Porky" Lee.
20/20
In 1990, the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 aired a segment purporting to be an interview with Buckwheat, now a downtrodden minimum wage grocery bagger in Arizona. The American Broadcasting Company ( ABC) is an American Television network. A newsmagazine, also spelled news magazine, is usually a weekly Magazine featuring articles or segments on current events 20/20 is an American television Newsmagazine broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. A minimum wage is the lowest hourly daily or monthly Wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers The State of Arizona ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. However, the interview was actually with a man named Bill English, who had made a career of claiming to be the adult Buckwheat. By the next week, 20/20 had learned of their error (George "Spanky" McFarland personally contacted the media following the broadcast), that the true Buckwheat had been dead for 10 years, and admitted their mistake on-air. Fallout from this incident included the resignation of a 20/20 producer, and a negligence lawsuit filed by the son of William Thomas. [2]
Other controversies
In 2007, Louisiana State Representative Carla Dartez, a Democrat, came under fire from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for calling one of her female volunteers "Buckwheat. The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations " The local chapter of the NAACP threw its support behind her Republican opponent, who won the November 17, 2007 run-off election. [3]
Buckwheat and his mispronunciation of the word Okay are mentioned on Lil' Wayne's verse on the Brisco single, "In The Hood". Okay is an informal term of approval assent or acknowledgment (often written as OK or O Dwayne Michael Carter Jr (born September 27 1982 better known by his Stage name Lil Wayne, is an American Rapper.
References
- ^ "Spanky" McFarland discusses Buckwheat in a 1987 appearance
- ^ "'20/20' Producer Resigns Over Buckwheat Interview. " Los Angeles Times. Oct. 12 1990. Part F. Page 25.
- ^ La. Pol's 'Buckwheat' Remark Draws Ire
External links
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