Born in Oakland, California, Beckett got his start in show business at age three when the family moved to Los Angeles and a casting director heard him singing by chance.

[1] After his Our Gang tenure ended, Beckett won increasingly prominent roles in major Hollywood films, usually playing the star's son or the hero as a boy.

Among his major credits are Dante's Inferno with Spencer Tracy, Anthony Adverse with Fredric March, The Charge of the Light Brigade with Errol Flynn, Conquest with Greta Garbo, Marie Antoinette with Norma Shearer; Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, in which he played Jon Hall's character as a child, and Kings Row, in which he played Robert Cummings's character as a child.

In 1954, Beckett's career took an upward turn when he was cast as Winky, the comic sidekick in the popular TV show Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.

According to actor Jimmy Lydon, who appeared with him in the Gasoline Alley films and also replaced him after he was fired from Rocky Jones, he earned a bad reputation due to his excessive drinking.

[4] After being fired from Rocky Jones, he made only a few subsequent TV and film appearances, some uncredited bit parts, before leaving show business forever.

After leaving the entertainment industry, Beckett sold real estate, cars, and twice enrolled at universities with the intention of becoming a physician.

Four days later, at age 29, he sustained a broken hip and skull fracture after crashing his car into a tree while driving in West Los Angeles.

[5] Lydon claimed that the accident left Beckett severely disabled and he had to utilize a wheelchair and crutches for the remainder of his life.

On May 8, 1968, Beckett checked into a Los Angeles nursing home to seek medical attention after suffering a serious beating (the circumstances surrounding it were never made clear).

A note and pills were found, but the Los Angeles County coroner stated that an exact cause of death was unknown even though an autopsy had been performed.