Every Actor Who Has Played Alfalfa From The Little Rascals

The very first “Our Gang” short film, “One Terrible Day,” was released on September 10, 1922, kicking off a long, long, long cinematic tradition that has continued for nearly a century. Producer Hal Roach first created “Our Gang” as an antidote to children’s entertainment of the era, which tended to be magical and fantastical. He wanted to depict kids as they were, complete with their misunderstandings of adult language, innocent concerns, and petty rivalries. All told, there were 220 “Our Gang” shorts released from 1922 to 1944, and the films featured a rotating bevy of young actors.

While “One Terrible Day” was the first film released, the third film, called “Our Gang,” was the first one filmed. Roach distributed the shorts through Pathé Exchange from 1922 to 1927, but then shifted over to MGM through to 1936. The studios each distributed over a dozen shorts per year, and tales of lovable street scamps became de rigueur. In 1936, MGM bought thr rights to “Our Gang” from Hal Roach, and re-branded them as films starring “The Little Rascals.” MGM’s name has been the default moniker ever since. Its final “Little Rascals” short, “Dancing Romeo,” was released on April 29, 1944.

After that, the Little Rascals would occasionally turn up in TV specials and reboot movies, all the way through 2014. One of the most recognizable characters from the Little Rascals was Alfalfa, a prim, tie-wearing boy with a spike-like cowlick on the top of his head. Alfalfa first appeared in the 1935 short “Beginner’s Luck,” and was a regular through to the 1940 episode “Kiddie Kure.” The original Alfalfa was played by actor Carl Switzer. With each reboot, however, a new actor would take over. At last count, there have been six actors to have played Alfalfa throughout the franchise’s history. Here they are:

Leonard Maltin laid down the story in his 1992 book, “The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang.”

When Carl Switzer and his brother Harold were young boys, they had already developed a reputation in their Illinois neighborhood for singing, performing, and playing multiple instruments. In 1935, the Switzer family went on a vacation to California and visited Hal Roach’s studio (merely as tourists). In the commissary, Harold, then only eight, and Carl, six, decided to break into song and dance for all the actors who were eating. Roach happened to be having lunch at the same time and hired both brothers for his “Our Gang” shorts. Harold was give the nickname of “Deadpan,” while Carl was called “Alfalfa.”

Carl starred in dozens of shorts until he was 12. He became the most popular member of the troupe. He rolled immediately into feature film, appearing in multiple productions a year, usually in uncredited cameos or supporting roles. He has a small part in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” turned up in a Francis the Talking Mule picture, “Francis in the Navy,” and even played one of the enslaved individuals in “The Ten Commandments.” Off-screen, Swizter became a skilled dog-trainer and often helped celebrity clients (like Roy Rogers and Jimmy Stewart) train their pets.

In 1959, when Switzer was 31, he was hired by an old friend, Bud Stiltz, agreed to train his foxhound as a hunting dog. When the dog was in Switzer’s care, however, it ran into the woods to chase a bear and disappeared. Stiltz was so angry that he demanded that Switzer either return the dog or pay him back. Switzer did eventually locate the dog, although it cost him a pile of reward money to do so. The fight over the dog led to a confrontation wherein Switzer demanded to be paid back, and hit Stiltz with a clock (!). In retaliation, Stiltz got a gun and shot Switzer to death.

Switzer’s last role was in 1958’s “The Defiant Ones.”

Although the Little Rascals shorts ended production in the mid-1940s, they remained in the popular consciousness for years thanks to a transfer to television. The shorts were re-edited and sold in packages to local TV stations throughout the 1950s, and they remained in regular broadcast until as late as the 1980s. The Gen-X author of this article remembers seeing “The Little Rascals” on TV as a child. It seems that there was still enough interest in the famed scamps in 1979 to produce an animated Christmas special.

“The Little Rascals Christmas Special” was a retelling of “The Gift of the Magi,” the famed O. Henry short story, and it featured the most popular Rascals in animated form. Set during the Depression, the story involved the poverty of Spanky’s mother (Darla Hood, who played Darla in the early “Our Gang” shorts). Stymie Beard, another one of the original Rascals, also had a small role.

Alfalfa, meanwhile, only had a small part in “Christmas Special,” and he was voiced by actor Jimmy Gatherum. Gatherum was a child actor who appeared mostly on TV throughout the 1980s, showing up in series like “Mork & Mindy,” “Eight is Enough,” “Gimme a Break!,” and “Knight Rider” (a property James Gunn once wanted to revive in his pre-DC Studios days). Most of his credits were along the lines of “Boy #1,” “Boy at School,” or “Roger, at age 11.” He never seemed to have a lengthy or visible career, and his most recent credit on IMDb is from 1987, when he was in an episode of “Highway to Heaven.”

In the early 1980s, a lot of older TV shows and movies were adapted into Saturday Morning Cartoons, all bearing what (at the time) was called “marquee value.” These days, we would simply call it “I.P.” Thanks to the reruns of the original “Our Gang” shorts on television, in 1982, Hanna-Barbera was commissioned to produce a “Little Rascals” animated TV series. The show only lasted 22 episodes over two seasons, but it kept the franchise afloat.

The premise was the same as Hal Roach’s shorts only updated for then-modern times, with the Rascals dressed in ’80s-era clothes and having access to television and video games. Several of the characters were the same, now all played by new actors. The most notable thing about the series was that several of the still-living members of the “Our Gang” shorts sued Hanna-Barbera for failing to secure the rights to their likenesses. The case settled out of court.

In the animated “Little Rascals,” Alfalfa was played by prolific Hanna-Barbera voice actor Julie McWhirter. McWhirter played Jeannie in “Jeannie,” an animated reboot of “I Dream of Jeannie,” and lent her voice to various “Scooby-Doo” projects, a few “Casper the Friendly Ghost” shorts, some “Flintstones” media, and played Huckleberry Pie in the “Strawberry Shortcake” cartoons. In addition to voicing Alfalfa, McWhirter also played Porky and Woim on “The Little Rascals.”

McWhirter continued to act into the early 1990s, appearing on shows like “Bobby’s World” and playing Baby Smurf in various Smurf shows. She married famed DJ Rick Dees in 1977 and seems to be retired.

While the animated “Little Rascals” series was still on the air, Eddie Murphy appeared on “Saturday Night Live” to lampoon the characters by playing an adult version of the character Buckwheat (originally played by Billie Thomas). The joke was that Buckwheat, while now an adult, still had the same wild hair and same bizarre speech pattern. He was also a celebrity in the real world, often needing to be bundled into limos after pushing his way through the arms of adoring fans. In a darkly funny twist, Buckwheat was such a celebrity that he attracted an assassin and ended up being shot live on the news.

In one of the post-shooting newsreels, Ted Koppel (Joe Piscopo) interviewed some of Buckwheat’s old friends, hoping for a comment. They tracked down the adult Alfalfa, who, like Buckwheat, was dressed the same and spoke the same as in the “Our Gang” shorts. Alfalfa was played by comedienne Mary Gross.

Mary Gross, a Second City alumna, was a “Saturday Night Live” regular from 1981 to 1985, and even briefly served as the Weekend Update anchor. She played Alfalfa multiple times throughout the series, and Murphy came back periodically to play Buckwheat. Gross was very good at impersonations and played many celebrities on “SNL,” from Brooke Shields to Pee-wee Herman.

Gross retired in 2012, with her last feature film being 2003’s “A Mighty Wind” and her last TV show being 2012’s “Raising Hope.” She also had recurring roles on “General Hospital,” “Boston Legal,” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”

The 1990s saw a large influx of feature films based on classic sitcoms and cartoons, from “The Addams Family,” “The Brady Bunch,” and “The Beverly Hillbillies” to “The Jetsons,” “The Flintstones,” and, yes, “The Little Rascals.” Penelope Spheeris’ 1994 reboot re-stages a lot of the old “Our Gang” shenanigans, including stalled childhood romances, go-kart races, and poverty, only with slicker writing and filmmaking updated for modern sensibilities. The 1994 film was popular among kids and became something of a cult hit. Noted felon Donald Trump appeared in the movie as the rich brat character’s rich father.

Alfalfa was played by actor Bug Hall, making his film debut. He also played another rebooted classic sitcom character when he portrayed Eddie Munster in the 1996 Christmas special “The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas.” Hall would go on to appear in ’90s comedies like “The Big Green,” “The Stupids,” and “Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves,” as well as the high-profile Disney animated film “Hercules” and a low-rent horror movie called “Mortuary.” He was likewise a regular staple on television up through the 2020s, appearing in “CSI,” “The O.C.,” “90210,” “Masters of Sex,” and many others.

Hall more recently came under fire for expressing some toxic viewpoints on social media. He was banned from X/Twitter in 2022 for voicing support of marital debt and the corporal punishment of children. He later referred to his daughters as dishwashers and to his son as an heir. He hasn’t worked since those comments.

Few might remember, but Spheeris’ 1994 film spawned a straight-to-video latter-day sequel in 2014. /Film even covered its development way back in 2012.

Put out by Universal’s sequel-baiting sub-arm 1440 Entertainment, “The Little Rascals Save the Day” was directed by Alex Zamm and starred a new cast of young actors as the Rascals. Like several of the above titles, “Save the Day” updated the Rascaps into a modern milieu while re-staging a lot of the “Our Gang” shorts with slicker filmmaking. The big celebrity “get” for “Save the Day” was Doris Roberts, who played Grandma. Of note: the girl in the overalls in the above picture is a young Jenna Ortega, playing the role of Mary Ann. Bug Hall also returned for a cameo, playing a deliveryman. (This was before his offensive comments on social media.)

Alfalfa, this time, was played by Drew Justice, an actor whose bulk of work is for TV commercials. His most notable role was playing the character Ranger Bowen on 40 episodes of 2014’s “Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street.” He was also on a TV series called “Jamall & Gerald.” The actor’s official website has his complete resume.

At the time of writing, however, there has been no new “Our Gang” or “Little Rascals” media since 2014, making one wonder if the franchise has officially died. Yes, it does happen from time to time. Hal Roach’s shorts were born a century ago, and thrived during the Great Depression. They depict characters and a lifestyle that no modern kids could relate to, and it’s possible that no studio would dare reboot the property again, finding everything to be ancient and dated.

Most of the above titles are easily found on DVD or online, however, so the Rascals live on.