Thomas Ross Bond, 79; Played ‘Butch’ in ‘Our Gang’ Serial

Thomas Ross Bond, known first as Tommy and more prominently as Butch, the bullying nemesis of Alfalfa in producer Hal Roach’s “Our Gang” comedy serial, has died. He was 79.

Bond died Saturday at Northridge Hospital, a hospital spokesman confirmed Sunday. Associated Press attributed the cause to complications from heart disease.

Roach’s “Our Gang” classics were made from 1922 until he sold the operation to MGM in 1938. They were repackaged for television in the 1950s as “The Little Rascals.” MGM continued producing “Our Gang” shorts until 1944.

Bond appeared in 27 of the 221 comedic shorts over eight years. He remained a gracious guest at fan conventions until his death, and in 1993 detailed his child-acting experience in his book, “You’re Darn Right It’s Butch!” published by Morgin Press.

“It’s about Hollywood as seen through the eyes of a 6-year-old,” Bond told The Times in 1994, when Cabin Fever released its video series of restored Our Gang/Little Rascals films, which Bond helped promote.

An engaging child born Sept. 16, 1926, in Dallas, the blond, curly-haired little boy was 5 when a Roach scout spotted him walking down a Dallas street with his mother. The scout said he could set up an interview if the boy could get to Hollywood.

His grandmother drove him from Dallas to Los Angeles on what during the Depression was an arduous journey that took seven days.

Bond as Tommy first sprang into the filmed foray in the 1932 short “Spanky” and continued in a dozen or so 1933 and 1934 episodes including “Forgotten Babies” and “Honkey Donkey.”

But when his first contract ran out, Bond was dropped from “Our Gang” and for three years performed bit parts in several motion pictures for Roach and various studios.

Then Roach, who liked Bond’s bratty character Junior in his own 1934 Charley Chase comedy “I’ll Take Vanilla,” asked Bond if he would like to rejoin the gang as a tough guy named Butch.

“Hal Roach was a wonderful man,” Bond told Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann for their 1977 book “Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals.”

Noting that Roach personally selected the ever-changing children, Bond said, “He would ask you things like, ‘Can you look tough? Can you fight?’ And he’d say ‘Make a mean face for me.’ He defined your character for you, and then you signed the contract with Hal Roach, right there in his office.”

Bond made his debut as Butch, the kid audiences loved to hiss, in the 1937 “Glove Taps.” In the one-reeler, Butch announced he would establish himself as the new neighborhood big shot by fighting a representative of the gang -- a reluctant Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) trained by a diligent Spanky (George McFarland).

Alfalfa managed to fulfill the childhood fantasy of defeating the neighborhood bully when the “little kids,” Porky (Eugene Lee) and Buckwheat (Billie Thomas), slugged Butch from behind a curtain with a loaded boxing glove. Nevertheless, Alfalfa remained the object of Butch’s wrath through “Our Gang” episodes into 1940.

Off-screen, Bond was a close friend of Switzer, who was shot to death in an argument with an acquaintance in 1959.

“Alfalfa and I were the best of friends. We had a ball together,” Bond told CNN in 1994 after publication of his book, written with Ron Genini. “He and I used to laugh about how we’d fool the people, you know, when I was the antagonist and he was the protagonist.... People hated me.”

Like hundreds of other cast members, Bond eventually outgrew the gang and its films, but continued to act in juvenile roles for a few years. His favorite film was the 1944 “Man From Frisco,” starring Michael O’Shea and Dan Duryea.

After serving in the Army Air Forces, Bond rejoined Switzer in 1947 for a couple of “Gas House Kids” comedy films. He also appeared as the Daily Planet cub reporter Jimmy Olsen in Columbia Studios’ 1948 and 1950 “Superman” serials starring Kirk Alyn as the Man of Steel.

But Bond abandoned acting as an adult in favor of television production.

“I loved the business,” he told The Times in 1994, “but as an actor you wait for your agent to call. If you work two or three months out of the year, you are real lucky.”

He attended Los Angeles City College and earned a degree in theater arts from Cal State L.A. in 1951. Bond worked 23 years as stage manager and head of the property department for KTTV-TV Channel 11 in Los Angeles. He spent 16 years as stage manager and assistant director at KFSN-TV Channel 30 in Fresno before retiring in 1990.

Bond is survived by his wife of 52 years, the former Pauline “Polly” Goebel; a son, Thomas Jr.; and a grandson.