Joe Cobb, the “fat kid” in the silent “Our Gang” comedies in the 1920s, died Tuesday in a convalescent hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Ana. He was 85.
The chubby boy was one of the most enduring and memorable members of the early gang of kids assembled by Hal Roach at his Culver City studios.
Beginning with “The Big Show” in 1923 when he was 5, he appeared in 86 “Our Gang” comedies over seven years.
That included the series’ last silent film, “Saturday’s Lesson,” and its first all-talking short, “Small Talk,” in 1929.
“Joe Cobb was an enthusiastic kid and a kid that the other members of the Gang respected: cheerful, optimistic but reliable, dependable,” said film historian Richard Bann, who interviewed Mr. Cobb for “Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals,” a 1977 book he co-wrote with Leonard Maltin.
Bann said Mr. Cobb “always seemed to make you smile when you saw him.”
Born in Shawnee, Okla., he arrived in Los Angeles on vacation with his father in September 1922.
“He thought we’d make the rounds of the studios and, of course, we eventually stopped at Hal Roach’s [studio],” Mr. Cobb told Bann.
“We drove into the parking lot just as the noon whistle blew, and so the casting people took us right out to lunch with them.”
That same afternoon, Mr. Cobb recalled, he was taken to the wardrobe department, and he immediately began working on a picture called “A Tough Winter.”
After he completed the comedy, the director, Charles Parrott–who would become film comedian Charley Chase and who also was the supervising director for “Our Gang”–installed Mr. Cobb in the Gang.
Mr. Cobb left the series because he got too old. The studio re-engaged him in 1936 to serve as master of ceremonies for “Our Gang” publicity tours, and he made return appearances in three “Our Gang” films.
Later, he worked for North American Aviation until 1981.
