Outspoken & Freckled

Happy birthday to former child star Dickie Moore, who turns 87 today.

Moore appeared in more than 100 films in a career that spanned three decades, including enduring classics like Alfred E. Green’s UNION DEPOT (1932), William J. Cowen’s OLIVER TWIST (1933), and Howard Hawks’ SARGEANT YORK (1941). He also has a small but memorable role as the mute “kid” in Jacques Tourneur’s OUT OF THE PAST (1947) with Robert Mitchum.

I first discovered Dickie Moore in the late 1970s, watching Hal Roach’s Little Rascals comedies on WPIX-11 in New York. Not yet seven years old, Moore was already a veteran when he joined Our Gang (as the shorts were known during their original theatrical run) in mid-1932.

Moore’s first two-reeker was HOOK AND LADDER, released in August of 1932. He followed with FREE WHEELING in October, which is known for being the only Our Gang short in which one…