Raymond Massey

See also: Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood. She is not related to Spank. Massey has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for movies at 1719 Vine Street and one for television at 6708 Hollywood Blvd. Note: Folk-rock singer Elaine McFarlane is known as "Spanky" from her tenure in the group Spanky and Our Gang, which was named in honor of the film troupe. On July 29, 1983 he died in Los Angeles, California from pneumonia and is buried in New Haven, Connecticut. His brother Tommy, who was also named after their father (Thomas Emmett McFarland), passed away in 1982, and McFarland died of a heart attack on June 30, 1993 followed by his mother just 30 days later. His brother was Vincent Massey, the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada. Other biographies incorrectly report his middle name as being Emmett; however this was his father's middle name.

He has two children who followed him into acting: Anna Massey and Daniel Massey. His middle names came from family names, Robert after his father and Phillips was his mother's maiden name (George was his father's brother's name). Massey became well-known on television in the 1950s and 1960s, especially in his role as Doctor Gillespie in the series Doctor Kildare. In later years some in his family affectionately would refer to him as just "Spank". Following the war, he became an American citizen. In January 1994, "Spanky" became the only Our Gang member to receive a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. He rejoined the Canadian Army during World War II, and was wounded and invalided out in 1943. He played the role of an enterprising kid in the series and the de facto leader of the gang.

Despite being Canadian, Massey became famous for his quintessential American roles, as Abraham Lincoln in 1940's Abe Lincoln in Illinois (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor), in 1941's Santa Fe Trail, in which he played abolitionist John Brown, and as Lincoln again in 1962's How the West Was Won. He was discovered at the age of three and soon became a regular and then most popular member of the children's comedy movie series Our Gang during the 1930s and 1940s. Early in Massey's career, Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), heard Massey perform and was struck by the close similarity of Massey's speaking voice to that of his father. His nickname "Spanky" is said to have arisen from repeated warnings by his mother not to misbehave. G. Wells' Things to Come. Worth as many biographies report. In 1936 he starred in H. McFarland was born in Dallas, Texas on October 2, 1928 - not in Ft.

His first movie role was High Treason in 1927, and he played Sherlock Holmes in The Speckled Band in the following year. George Robert Phillips McFarland (October 2, 1928 - June 30, 1993) was an American actor most famous for his childhood role as Spanky in the depression era children's comedy movie series Our Gang, also known as the Little Rascals. However, drawn to the theater, in 1922 he appeared on the London stage. Severely wounded in action in France, he was sent home where he eventually worked in the family business, selling farm implements. His first stage appearance was in Siberia, where he entertained the American troops who were on occupation duty.

At the outbreak of World War I he joined the Canadian Army. He was educated at Upper Canada College, the University of Toronto and at Balliol College, Oxford, England. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was the son of Hart Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 - July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor.