LOS ANGELES - Thomas Ross Bond, who played Butch the bully in the "Our Gang" and "The Little Rascals" serials of the 1930s, has died. He was 79.
Bond died Saturday of complications from heart disease at Northridge Hospital, said his manager, Frank Marks.
Bond played a member of the Gang named Tommy. After his first year he was dropped from the cast but returned later in the role of Butch, the archenemy of Alfalfa.
Bond appeared in dozens of "Our Gang" and "Little Rascals" features before outgrowing the role.
Born Sept. 16, 1926 in Dallas, Bond got his start at the age of 5 when a talent scout for Hal Roach studios approached him as he was leaving a movie theater with his mother.
The scout "asked him if he'd be interested in acting, (said) he had a great face and he could set up an appointment with Hal Roach in L.A.," Marks said.
His grandmother drove him in what, at the time, was a rugged journey: "It was all dirt roads from Dallas to L.A," Marks said.
In the 1940s, Bond played Jimmy Olsen in two Superman movies and appeared as Joey Pepper in several installments of the "Five Little Peppers" serial.
In 1951, Bond quit acting and went into television directing and production work before retiring in 1991.
Bond is survived by his wife, Pauline, son Thomas Ross Bond III and a grandson.
RIP Thomas Bond, Our Gang's "Butch"
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."-- Eleanor Roosevelt
The New York Times printed a 'correction' to this obit. ie: OUR GANG & DEAD END KIDS weren't the same thing and he was in a serial form not movies of one but not the other . There were others but enough to make me wonder in whoever gave the info on the obit had any idea what he/she was talking about. 