Allen Clayton Hoskins (August 9, 1920 – July 26, 1980) was an American child actor, most famous for portraying the character of Farina in the Our Gang short films from 1922 to 1931.
Born in Boston, Hoskins was just one year old when his tenure with Our Gang began. His character stayed in the series through the silent years and the transition to talking pictures, and left the series in 1931 at the age of eleven. With his pigtailed hair and patchy ...
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Allen Clayton Hoskins (August 9, 1920 – July 26, 1980) was an American child actor, most famous for portraying the character of Farina in the Our Gang short films from 1922 to 1931.
Born in Boston, Hoskins was just one year old when his tenure with Our Gang began. His character stayed in the series through the silent years and the transition to talking pictures, and left the series in 1931 at the age of eleven. With his pigtailed hair and patchy outfits, Farina resembled a pickaninny in the tradition of the character Topsy from Uncle Tom's Cabin, but as the character became more popular, and as Allen Hoskins got older, Farina developed his own personality separate from that of Topsy. The name "Farina", derived from a type of cereal, was chosen because its gender was ambiguous: as a toddler, Farina was portrayed as both a boy and a girl (sometimes both genders in the same film), much to the puzzlement of movie audiences.
During his time in the gang, Farina became both the series'...
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