Kendall McComas
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (January 2011) |
Kendall McComas | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 29, 1916 Holton, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | October 15, 1981 (aged 64) |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Occupation(s) | Child actor Engineer |
| Years active | 1927-1946 |
Kendall McComas (October 29, 1916 – October 15, 1981) was an American child actor.
Career
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Born in Holton, Kansas, McComas first appeared in the Mickey McGuire short subjects series as a member of Mickey McGuire's gang and stayed throughout the series run in the silent era. He also played the role of Stinky Davis in some of the series' earliest sound shorts. In 1931, he joined the Our Gang series, first appearing in the 1932 Our Gang short Readin' and Writin'. McComas stayed with Our Gang for a full year and left the series after appearing in the 1932 Our Gang short Birthday Blues.
Even though he was well into his teens during his Our Gang tenure, McComas was very short for his age and thus capably portrayed his grade-school-age character Breezy aka Brisbane. Breezy's mother refers to him as "Brisbane" in the films Readin' and Writin' and Spanky, the only shorts in which that name appears; the kids refer to him as "Breezy," presumably as a nickname for Brisbane. However, the Leonard Maltin/Richard Bann book The Little Rascals: The Life & Times of Our Gang lists his character as "Breezy Brisbane," a name which does not appear in dialogue in any of the shorts in which McComas appears.
After growing up, he left show business and became an electrical engineer at the U.S. Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, California and then an institutional mortgage backed bond salesman under the name John Mandy.
Death
McComas committed suicide in a fit of depression two weeks before turning 65 when he was facing mandatory retirement from his job.[1]
Our Gang Filmography
- Readin' and Writin' (1932)
- Free Eats (1932)
- Spanky (1932)
- Choo-Choo! (1932)
- The Pooch (1932)
- Hook and Ladder (1932)
- Free Wheeling (1932)
- Birthday Blues (1932)
References
- ^ Maltin, Leonard & Bann, Richard W. (1977, rev. 1992). The Little Rascals: The Life & Times of Our Gang. New York: Crown Publishing/Three Rivers Press; ISBN 0-517-58325-9
External links
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| Television |
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 | This article about a United States film actor born in the 1910s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- Male actors from Kansas
- American male film actors
- American male child actors
- American electrical engineers
- Hal Roach Studios actors
- Suicides in California
- 1916 births
- 1981 deaths
- People from Holton, Kansas
- 20th-century American male actors
- American male comedy actors
- Our Gang
- Engineers from California
- 20th-century American engineers
- 1981 suicides
- American film actor, 1910s birth stubs