John Keith Collum (1926-62) stumbled into acting by virtue of being the son of a casting director at the Hal Roach studios.
In 1932, aged six, Collum was given a role in one of the Our Gang pictures, playing a boy whose response to everything was a drawled “Uh-huh”. He was never a full member of the gang, but a recurring character in 22 episodes of the 200-plus series.
The year after his debut, Roach also used Collum in The Devil’s Brother.
Collum made a handful of uncredited screen appearances as an adult, but, like many other child actors, had little success and died young.
