Two child actors who played "Buckwheat" in the movies

"Buckwheat," one of the best-known characters in the "Our Gang" (Little Rascals) comedy shorts, was a replacement for the character known as "Farina." (Farina is the type of wheat used in Cream of Wheat hot cereal; over the years, Cream of Wheat's packaging always featured an African-American chef/cook.) In the "Our Gang" series, Farina was played by a Black male actor but the character's gender was depicted sometimes as male, sometimes as female. Farina appeared in some of the very early silent movies, as well as in the 1929 soundie short "Lazy Days."

Allen Hoskins, as Farina, finds the combination of summertime and rural life soporific.

Some viewers have trouble telling the African-American actors in the short comedies apart. Occasionally mistaken for Buckwheat is the chracter of Stymie, played by Matthew Beard. There's an IMDb page for child actor Beard, whose younger sister Carlena appeared in a couple of "Our Gang" shorts. 

The original "Buckwheat" character was female. Willie Mae Taylor (Walton) played her in the early comedy shorts. Here she is, holding a parasol and looking displeased because the boys have told her she can't come on a camp-out down by the creek. 

Little Buckwheat, in dress-up clothes and holding a parasol, is very disappointed.

In the sound era, Buckwheat's character, like Farina's, was hazily defined in terms of male/female. This gender fluidity seems odd (or possibly groundbreaking) to the modern sensibility. The blurring of identity may have been influenced in part by the fictional child "Topsy" in the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Topsy was a girl, but her name and appearance were somewhat gender-ambiguous. Various illustrations from Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel showed Topsy with a short hairstyle and oversize clothing.

This depiction of Topsy (with Eva) doesn't have short braids tied with bits of cloth, or an oversize plaid nightshirt, which is how she was often shown. Source for image: https://stephanieanncrawford.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/topsy-the-theif/

In three "Our Gang" shorts, the child actor Willie Mae Taylor (Walton) introduced Buckwheat as a clearly female character. After these releases, Willie Mae was replaced by Billie Thomas, the young actor who played "Buckwheat" for the rest of the series.  In the transitional period, Billie -- a boy -- was dressed as a girl and called "she" in comedy shorts including "Mama's Little Pirate." In the photo below, that's Billie on the right sitting on the floor of the pirate cave.

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Later, Billie's costume was changed to the one we usually associate with the Buckwheat character. With the change of costume (striped shirt, suspenders, straw hat), Buckwheat was acknowledged to be a boy. Here he is, with his pal Porky, about to swear an oath of secrecy to Alfalfa as "Super Sleuth" X-10.  

Not much is known about the life of Willie Mae Taylor (Walton), who played the original Buckwheat. Willie Mae was born December 19, 1915 in Bogalusa, Louisiana. IMDb reports that Willie Mae had eight children, twelve grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. She passed away in New Carrollton, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC. IMDb says the actress lived to be 54 years old. Another source gives the date of her death as 2002, which would have made her 86 years old.

Billie Thomas, who appeared in dozens of the "Our Gang" comedies as Buckwheat, was born March 12, 1931, in Los Angeles. In 1934 his mother brought him to audition at the Hal Roach Studios. He worked in the series until the series' end in 1944. Billie Thomas first appeared in the 1934 Our Gang shorts "For Pete's Sake!" and "The First Round-Up" as a background player.

The website African American Registry has this information about Thomas:

"Thomas always defended the stereotype critique of his work in the series, pointing out that Buckwheat and the rest of the black Our Gang kids were treated as equals to the white kids in the series. Despite the change in the Buckwheat character's gender, Billie Thomas's genderless costuming was not changed until his appearance as a runaway slave in the 1936 Our Gang feature film 'General Spanky.' This new costuming overalls, striped shirt, oversized shoes, and a large unkempt Afro—was retained for the series proper from late 1936's 'Pay as You Exit' on. 

Thomas remained in Our Gang for ten years, appearing in all but one of the episodes. . . [till the series] end in 1944. During the first half of his Our Gang tenure, Thomas' Buckwheat character was often paired with Eugene 'Porky' Lee as a tag-along team of 'little kids' rallying against (and often outsmarting) the 'big kids,' George 'Spanky' McFarland and Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer. 

Thomas had a speech impediment as a young child, as did Lee, who became Thomas' friend both on the set and off. The 'Buckwheat' and 'Porky' characters both became known for their collective garbled dialogue, in particular their catchphrase, 'O-tay!' originally uttered by Porky, but soon shared by both characters. 

Thomas remained in Our Gang when the series changed production from Hal Roach Studios to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1938 and was the only Our Gang cast member to appear in all 52 MGM Our Gang shorts. Thomas was also the only holdover from the Hal Roach era to remain in the series until its end in 1944. By 1940, Thomas had grown out of his speech impediment, and with Lee having been replaced by Robert Blake, Thomas's Buckwheat character was written as an archetypal Black youth. 

He was twelve years old when the final Our Gang film, 'Dancing Romeo,' was completed in November 1943. After Our Gang was discontinued, Thomas enlisted in the US Army in 1954, and was released from active military service in 1956. [He was] decorated with a National Defense Service Medal and a Good Conduct Medal. After returning to civilian life, Thomas, though offered many film and stage roles, said he had no desire to return to Hollywood as an actor. However, Thomas still enjoyed the film industry at large, and became a successful film lab technician with the Technicolor Corporation. He took his experience in film work and learned the trade of film editing and cutting. 

In 1980, the Second International Convention of The Sons of the Desert took place at the Los Angeles Hilton Hotel, with more than 500 fans in attendance. Several days were spent touring famous Hollywood attractions, and then the highlight of the gathering took place in the hotel ballroom. Among those honored were fellow Our Gangers Spanky MacFarland, Dorothy DeBorba, Tommy Bond and Joe Cobb. When Thomas was brought out, he received a spontaneous standing ovation, and was moved to tears. 

William 'Billie' Thomas, Jr. died of a heart attack in his Los Angeles apartment on October 10, 1980. Coincidentally, exactly 46 years to the day after his mother brought him to audition at the Hal Roach Studios. He is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California."

Some time ago, a modern version of The Little Rascals appeared in a kids' movie. Buckwheat is on the DVD cover, and instead of hair standing on end, Buckwheat's hair is free and natural. But it still felt funny when I spotted the video at a discount store. 

For both people of color and white folk who aspire to cultural competency, the Buckwheat character can be cringe-worthy. This article, by long-time Chicago Tribune journalist Clarence Page, sums up one writer's take on seeing Buckwheat imagery everywhere in the late 1980s. Eddie Murphy had imitated Buckwheat's distinctive speech in some skits on Saturday Night Live, and received mixed reviews across the board. In the Tribune article, Page speaks with African-Americans frustrated when white people claimed that Buckwheat's race had nothing to do with the character's magnetic hold on the public. It doesn't help that the term "Buckwheat" became a derisive name for someone who is clueless, as in "Not so fast, Buckwheat. "


For those who doubt that the Buckwheat trope is hurtful, here's an author who makes a statement with his book cover: