[1] Back in 1929, after seeing a notice in the local newspaper, his mother entered him in a contest to replace the Hal Roach produced Our Gang comedies fat boy character Joe Cobb who had outgrown the role.
He was even older than Joe Cobb and in 1931 he aged out of the series so after a few months, Harold Wertz was hired to be the fat kid and would begin working at the end of 1931.
The March 1933 Long Beach earthquake left the Culver City studios damaged and production was halted for a time.
Merchant Marine and served on the ship Mills Victory during the final year of World War II and was one of the first U.S. vessels into Tokyo after the armistice in 1945.
Upon his return, he married Kathleen McCracken, settled in Long Beach, California, had two children and worked in the steel pipe business until his retirement.