Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer

Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer was born on August 7, 1927 in Paris, Illinois, USA as Carl Dean Switzer.

He and his brother Harold Switzer decided to audition for Our Gang but could not gain access into the studio. They went to the Our Gang Cafe and began singing and were quickly signed into Beginner's Luck (1935).

He was an actor, known for Rushin' Ballet (1937), Feed 'em and Weep (1938) and Johnny Doughboy (1942). He was married to Dian Collingwood.

Appeared in six movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Human Comedy (1943), Going My Way (1944), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), The Ten Commandments (1956) and The Defiant Ones (1958).

In White Christmas (1954), the photo that Vera-Ellen shows to Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye of her brother Bennie is actually a photo of Switzer.

He died on the same day as Cecil B. DeMille. Coincidentally, one of his final acting roles was an uncredited appearance as a slave in The Ten Commandments (1956), the last film which DeMille directed.

Although one of the most popular members of "Our Gang," his later life became an almost textbook example of the former child star whose life takes a turn for the worse. Numerous brushes with the law, a broken marriage, and grade-Z film work (when he could get it) all led up to his sudden, violent death in January 1959 at the age of only 31. Eight years later a similar fate befell his brother, Harold Switzer, who then operated a company installing and servicing washers and dryers. In April 1967, after killing a customer over a dispute, he drove to a remote area near Glendale, CA and committed suicide. He was 42.

Things didn't go well for the other Our Gang members. Darla Hood contracted hepatitis in hospital and died aged 47, Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas died of a heart attack age 49, Robert Blake was tried and acquitted of his wife's murder, Tommy Bond and his wife were severely injured in a car crash in 1996 and Pete the Dog was fatally poisoned.