Profile[]
Name: Jackie Cooper
Nickname: None
Played By: Jackie Cooper
Born: 1922
Relatives: Grandmother, Mother, Dorothy (sister), Wheezer (possible step-brother)
Clubs: None
First Short: Boxing Gloves
Last Short: Bargain Day
Character[]
Bio: Jackie Cooper was one of the first new stars of the Little Rascals after the Silent Films. He had a lot of character and personality plus a knack for emoting just the right face, look or emotion given the situation. In Pups Is Pups, he's revealed to be the older brother of Echo. Wheezer is somehow shown to be his brother as they have to share the same room. In When The Wind Blows, Wheezer locks Jackie out of the house and Jackie has to climb in Mary Ann's bedroom window. Mary Ann is Wheezer's older sister, and given that Jackie has a crush on her in The First Seven Years and fights Speck Haines for her, it is possible but not confirmed that they are his step-siblings. (In The Spanking Age through Dogs Is Dogs, it's revealed that Wheezer's mother is deceased, their father remarries at least once and again before their aunt rescues them from their stepmother.) The contradictions run so fast and loose that it difficult to ascertain the families of the characters; it would be a few more years before anything resembling continuity starts to take shape.
Jackie lives with his father and grandfather and attends Adams Street Grammar School. His teacher is Miss MacGillicuddy, but she leaves teaching to get married. In Teacher's Pet, Jack gets a crush on a lady driver named Miss Crabtree who picks him up on the way to school, and Jack spills to her about the pranks he and the gang have in store for the new teacher, little knowing that it's she. She never punishes him for the attempted mischief, but she does get annoyed when Jackie and several of the kids in class get their homework answers from Bonedust in School's Out. Jackie gets so scared of losing her as a teacher and possible girlfriend that he hides the clothes of Jack Crabtree, her brother, after suspecting that he is a suitor. Jack's main competition in winning her heart is Chubby Chaney in Love Business. When Miss Crabtree starts renting a room in the Cooper House, Jackie does all he can do to keep Chubby from pledging his heart to her. Chubby is sometimes Jackie's best friend, the two of them having become blood brothers sometime before The First Seven Years.
Quotes:
- "If you're gonna get killed, will you let me have your knife?" - Wheezer to Jackie
- "Yeah, you can have it. Hey if I don't get killed, I want that knife back." - Jackie to Wheezer
- "Well, I hope you get killed." - Wheezer to Jackie in The First Seven Years
- "Give me back my knife. I didn't get killed." - Jackie to Wheezer
- "Aw gee, I never get a break." - Wheezer to Jackie in The First Seven Years
- "That's the pip that gave me the ride, and did I tell her everything!" - Jackie in Teacher's Pet
- "Eh, you couldn't sell many chains in this town anyhow." - Jackie in Helping Grandma
Notes/Trivia[]
- Jackie Cooper only appeared in fifteen Our Gang shorts.
- Jackie seems to have a crush on Mary Ann, but in later shorts, Dorothy is revealed to be his sister while also being Wheezer's sister which later comes to include Mary Ann.
- Jackie is not to be confused with Jackie Condon, Jack Davis, Jack Hanlon, Jackie Banning. Jackie Horner, Jackie White, Jackie Williams or Jackie Wilson.