Scott Beckett

Edith Fellows and Scotty Beckett

Biography

Character: Scotty Beckett and Cousin Wilbur
Birthday: October 4, 1929
Place of Birth: Oakland, California
Date of Death: May 10, 1968
Place of Death: Hollywood, California
First Short: Hi'-Neighbor!
Last Short: The Lucky Corner
Number of Shorts: 15 (not counting Cousin Wilbur and Dog Daze)
History: Scotty Beckett and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was three years old. The cherubic-faced boy caught the attention of a casting agent and made his first movie in the 1933 drama, "Gallant Lady," playing the younger version of a boy played by Dickie Moore, a former Our Gang star. He was interviewed for Our Gang in January 1934 and eventually worked with Dickie again in the 1947 motion picture, "The Dangerous Years," best known as the first film for Marilyn Monroe.
In Our Gang, Scotty wore an over-sized sweater and sideways baseball cap to emulate another child star, Jackie Coogan, in the Charlie Chaplin film "The Kid" from 1920. He was teamed up as the best friend of George McFarland as Spanky. However, due to his popularity, he was much more busier in feature films and his Rascals work was subsequently dropped up until he returned for two more Rascal shorts as Cousin Wilbur during the less than stellar M-G-M years. He attended Los Angeles High School between film roles and later dropped out of the University of Southern California to focus on his acting. He worked steadily at M-G-M, but through the Forties and early Fifties, he life became a bit tumultuous. He was picked up on a suspicion of drunk driving in 1948, and his marriage to tennis star Beverly Baker last only a few months. His second marriage gave him a son, Scotty Jr., and almost seemed to work, but in 1954, he was picked up again for passing a bad check and possession of a loaded weapon. He had a role as the comic sidekick in the TV series, "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger," which would prove to be his last work as an actor.
The last ten years of his life were filled with divorce, violence, drugs and more arrests. After giving up on show business, he tried selling real estate and cars between trying to take classes on becoming a doctor. On May 8, 1968, he checked himself into a Hollywood nursing home for medical attention after a severe beating, the details of whch were never solved. He died two days later at the age of thirty-eight. Although pills and a note were found, the exact cause of death was not determined.

List of Shorts

• Hi' Neighbor!
• For Pete's Sake
• The First Round-Up
• Honky Donkey
• Mike Fright
• Washee Ironee
• Mama's Little Pirate
• Shrimps For A Day
• Anniversary Trouble
• Beginner's Luck
• Teacher's Beau
• Sprucin' Up
• Little Papa
• Our Gang Follies Of 1936
• The Lucky Corner
• Cousin Wilbur
• Dog Daze

Other Projects

• Gallant Lady (1933) - with Richard Moore
• Dante's Inferno (1935) - with Spencer Tracy
• Anthony Adverse (1936) - with Frank Ward
• The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) - with Errol Flynn
• Conquest (1937) - with Greta Garbo
• Marie Antoinette (1938)
• Kings Row (1942)
• Dangerous Years (1947) - with Richard Moore and Marilyn Monroe
• A Date With Judy (1948) - with Elizabeth Taylor
• Battleground (1949)
• The Happy Years (1950) - with Dean Stockwell and Darryl Hickman