Haines was born in Seward County, Nebraska, the son of Karl and Nola Haines. Their family moved to California when he was 9 years old.[1]
Our Gang
Haines's tenure began during the early talkies up through the "Miss Crabtree episodes," and then the early Spanky episodes. He would leave with Jackie Cooper for feature films at Paramount only to return a few months later. He was 11 years old when he joined the gang in 1930. His association with the Our Gang series lasted through 1933.[citation needed]
Haines's first short was Shivering Shakespeare, which featured him giggling his way through his lines. He was intended to originally be a full-time character playing the tough guy and was cast as such in The First Seven Years, opposite Jackie Cooper. After that, he played a recurring character with occasional lines of dialogue until 1931. At that time he was offered a contract with Paramount that began with a role in a feature called Skippy. Cooper also was offered a role on that feature along with a contract. Both Jackie and Donald are missing from the final scenes of the second-to-last short made in the 1930-31 season, Bargain Day, owing to their beginning work at Paramount.
Haines left Paramount to return to Hal Roach Studios just in time for the 1931-32 season. Haines would resume his role as a recurring character with occasional dialogue for the next two seasons. Haines left the Our Gang series at the age of 15 after appearing in the 1933 short Fish Hooky.
^Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 25047-25048). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Bibliography
Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 89.
External links
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