Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.
Jay R. Smith, who in 36 silent "Our Gang" films of the late 1920s portrayed the freckled-face character often called "Specks," now is the subject of a Las Vegas murder investigation.
Smith gave up the limelight in 1929, at age 12, when he collected his final check from Hal Roach Studios and musingly proclaimed, "You don't know what you will do without me." He later joked with friends that, sure enough, the studio went bankrupt -- 30 years later.
Now Smith, a Las Vegas resident of about 20 years, once again is in the limelight, the focus of a homicide investigation after a body found Oct. 5 near Apex was identified last week as the former actor. The coroner's office said Smith died of stab wounds and bludgeoning.
He had been missing since Oct. 1, but his automated teller machine card was used Thursday at the Gold Coast, police said.
Metro Homicide Lt. Tom Monahan said this morning that Smith befriended a homeless man, Graydon Brooker, 46, and detectives would like to speak to Brooker about Smith's death.
"Mr. Brooker, while homeless, was allowed to stay in the tool shed adjacent to Mr. Smith's trailer," Monahan said. Brooker might have been one of the last people to see Smith alive.
It's not clear if Brooker is still in the area, Monahan said. Smith's beige 1998 Buick with Nevada plates 693JHP is missing.
The Neptune Society of Nevada, which is handling arrangements, said services for Smith will be private in California. A funeral home spokesman said the family has requested no other information be released.
But friends remembered the "Our Gang" member fondly.
"He was a terrific guy, who in recent years came to the Hollywood collectors show to sign autographs and help raise money for charity," said Richard Bann of Los Angeles, a longtime friend and one of the nation's foremost authorities on the "Our Gang" and "Little Rascals" short subjects.
"Jay had a wonderful sense of humor about the whole experience."
"It was an experience none of us took seriously when it was happening," Smith said in the book "The Little Rascals -- The Life and Times of Our Gang," by Bann and Leonard Maltin. "As I grow older, it gets more valuable."
During an acting career that spanned from ages 9 to 12, Smith made three dozen "Our Gang" short subjects -- all but the last one were silent films.
Bann said Smith was one of the few child actors who went to the set unsupervised. He rode his bike from home, which was less than a mile from the studio. Smith's father was a laborer. Smith had five brothers, one of them "Beezer" Smith, who made a handful of Our Gang movies.
Smith made his debut in the 1926 Our Gang film, "Boys Will Be Joys," the 42nd short subject of the series.
Smith, who had distinctive freckles, initially replaced the original Freckles, who was portrayed by the late Mickey Daniels. Because Smith wore granny glasses, his Our Gang character became "Specks" in the 1926 film "Buried Treasure."
Smith worked constantly throughout the late 1920s, starting at $45 a week, and at his peak earned $125 a week -- an excellent adult wage in those days.
In the 62nd Our Gang Movie "Chicken Feed," Smith was fired for stirring up chickens on the set by rolling a ball at them. Bann said after being fired, Smith calmly walked off the set and was riding his bike home when a studio representative retrieved him and brought him back to finish the movie.
Smith made his last short, and only talkie, "Moan and Groan," the 94th "Our Gang" film, in 1929. In all 221 "Our Gang" films were made through 1944.
Over the years, Smith stayed close with just two members of the "Our Gang" family -- on-set teacher Fern Carter and actor Joe Cobb, the original fat kid, who died earlier this year, Bann said.
"I was never in love with the entertainment field," said Smith, noting he was never pressured by his parents to be a film star.
In the mid-1930s Smith graduated from high school in Culver City, Calif. According to Daily Variety in October 1936, Smith married actress Gloria Narath, the original voice of Minnie Mouse for Walt Disney Studios.
In World War II Smith served in the Navy in Guam. After the war he returned to California and opened Sundry Sales Inc., a paint store in Arcadia, Calif., that he operated for 15 years.
Smith then moved to Kailua, Hawaii, and for 20 years owned a paint store there before retiring in 1980 and later moving to Las Vegas.
Bann said Smith has a daughter who lives in California. It is not known if any of his brothers survive him.
Smith's death is the latest in a series of tragic lives and deaths involving the actors in the Our Gang series. Among them:
Bann said that because the group was so high profile, it only seems that so many have died tragically. The incidents of untimely deaths may be the same or just a little higher than any other cross section of people, he said.
"Death is not pretty for anyone, but I would say many of these kids were skewed in that (tragic) direction," Bann said. "Many of them had the added disadvantage of coming from dysfunctional homes where parents forced them at a young age to be the breadwinner or attain the fame they could not.
"Once out of the series, the kids were no longer the breadwinners or the stars, but they still had lives to live."
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