Buddy McDonald
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Buddy McDonald, (born October 1, 1922, in Coalinga, California) was a child actor. He is perhaps best known as one of the Our Gang kids of the early sound period, and McDonald is prominently featured in the Our Gang shorts Teacher's Pet (1930) and School's Out (1930). He appeared in several of the Our Gang comedies, and also appeared in a scene (later deleted) with Laurel & Hardy in Pardon Us (1931).
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early career
Buddy first got "discovered" when his mother wrote a letter, dictated from his father to Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, in which they enclosed a newspaper article of Buddy's local spelling bee win. They received a phone call from the studio that same week.
The studio gave him a screen test and called Buddy to work on his first picture, "Pups is Pups". From there, he worked on various bit parts with Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In addition, he sang on "Juvenile review", a weekend radio program on KFWB in Los Angeles. He attended grammar school on the studio lot with fellow Our Gang actors Donald Haines and Mary Ann Jackson. Additionally, he did scenes with Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts.
[edit] Childhood
Growing up in Bell, California, McDonald had a difficult upbringing, his parents were both alcoholics, and after they divorced in 1933, he and his mother went to live with his aunt in Oregon. There he slept in a tent, and picked fruit. Within a year, his family made enough money to move back to their old house in Bell.
His father told him, while he and his mother were living in Oregon, that the studio had called asking for Buddy to do more work in the pictures. By that time the calls had already stopped, thus ending his childhood "career" in acting.
[edit] Life after the movies
During Prohibition, his father owned a cafe on Florence Avenue in Bell and after Prohibition was repealed, he turned it into a bar.
Buddy Became quite famous in the community, as he was the only person living there at the time that was in pictures. As a teenager, he encountered his own problems with alcohol. McDonald was expelled from Bell High School and later attended Jacob August Riis High School in Los Angeles, a reform school for boys.
In later years McDonald joined the United States Marine Corps, where he served in Guadalcanal during World War II. After a run-in with the law upon returning, Buddy later joined Alcoholics Anonymous. After more than 10 years of being sober, he and a friend started what they named the "Dana" School (Drugs, Alcohol, Narcotics, Awareness) in Downey,California. In 1972 they formed the Southern California Alcohol and Drug Program and in 1975 opened their first recovery house, the Cider House. In 1985, they established an additional recovery house for women and their children.
Today Buddy McDonald lives in the retirement community of Leisure World, California in Seal Beach. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Southern California Drug and Alcohol Abuse Center. He has three grown children.
