Norman Chaney

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Norman "Chubby" Chaney (* 18th October 1914 as Norman Myers Chaney in Cambridge , Maryland ; † 29. May 1936 in Baltimore , Maryland) was an American child actor who mainly through his appearances in the film series The Little Rascals known has been.

life and career

Between 1929 and 1931, Norman Chaney made a total of 22 short films, all for the little rascals ( Our Gang ). 18 of them were in English, four in Spanish-language version films . The son of an electrical worker was selected from over 2,000 children in an American-wide casting by Hal Roach Studios and was intended as a kind of replacement for Joe Cobb . Cobb had previously played the role of the fat kid for over seven years, but had now grown out of his role - ironically, Chaney was even two years older than Cobb, which the parents always kept from the studio. They gave 1918 as the wrong year of birth, which is why there was long confusion about Chaney's actual age. Perhaps the most memorable appearance was in the film Love Business (1931), in which he and Jackie Cooper fought for the affection of the teacher Miss Crabtree ( June Marlowe ) , who in his role mostly acted as a comical and lovable clumsy . Here he dropped the well-known phrase “Don't call me Norman, call me 'Chubsy-Ubsy'” .

His role name "Chubby" (in German: 'fat') referred to his obesity , he weighed at times 136 kilos with a height of around 1.40 meters. After leaving Die kleine Strolche in 1931 for reasons of age , he and his family said goodbye to Hollywood. He went back to school in his home state of Maryland, but his weight was causing him increasing health problems. The origin of this was a gland disease that was treated in the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1935 so that his weight was more than halved. This radical weight loss caused him further problems, so that he died of myocarditis in May 1936 after a long illness at the age of only 21 . Since his mother couldn't afford a tombstone, Chaney lay in an unmarked grave in the Baltimore cemetery for a long time. Fundraising on the Internet ensured that Chaney received a tombstone in 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grave finally arrives for Norman 'Chubby' Chaney , The Baltimore Sun, November 7, 2012
  2. ↑ a b 'Chubby' from The Little Rascals Gets a Headstone After 76 Years , Time, November 12, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Chaney, Norman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chaney, Norman Myers; Chaney, Chubby (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American child actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Cambridge , Maryland
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1936
Place of death Baltimore , Maryland