the following episode, George McFarland made his debut as "Spanky", enthralling Roach and McGowan so much that they took the unprecedented step of giving him star billing in a couple subsequent shorts that year. By comparison, Hutchins was now relegated to being a minor member of the gang, receiving very few lines and close-ups. When newcomer Dickie Moore, who was younger than Hutchins, took over as the gang's leader at the start of the 1932-33 season, Hutchins did not appear in the first three episodes. Other members of the Our Gang troupe remember very little about Hutchins. Jackie Cooper said, "You'd go to play with Wheezer and his father would pull him away. Very competitive. I didn't get a satisfactory answer from my mother or grandmother as to why, but he was to be left alone." Other cast members reported that Hutchins was abused by his parents to keep him from outgrowing Our Gang. Hutchins's younger brother Dickie appeared in the short Forgotten Babies. After Our Gang After outgrowing the series, Hutchins and his family eventually moved back to Tacoma, where he entered public school. He joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1943 after graduating high school and enrolled in the Aviation Cadet Program with the goal of becoming a pilot. Death Hutchins was killed in a mid-air collision on May 17, 1945, while trying to land a North American AT-6D-NT Texan, serial number 42-86536, of the 3026th Base Unit, when it struck an AT-6C-15-NT Texan, 42-49068, of the same unit at Merced Army Air Field in Merced, California, later known as Castle Air Force Base, during a training exercise. The other pilot, Edward F. Hamel, survived. Hutchins's mother, Olga Hagerson Hutchins, had been scheduled to travel to the airfield for his graduation from flying school, which would have occurred the week after he died. References External links 1925 births 1945 deaths American male child actors Hal Roach Studios actors Male actors from Tacoma, Washington Military personnel from Tacoma, Washington Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Accidental deaths in California United States Army Air Forces officers United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II 20th-century American male actors American male comedy actors Our Gang Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1945 United States Army Air Forces personnel killed in World War II