Dorothy Adelle DeBorba was a former American 1930s child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1930 to 1933, has died from emphysema and lung disease, she was 85. She was of Portuguese Azorean ancestry.[1] | (March 28, 1925 – June 2, 2010) |
She came from a show-business background. Her mother was a singer-dancer, and her father was a drummer in Paul Whiteman's band.
Dorothy DeBorba began her career at age five. With her trademark curls and elaborate hair bows, Dorothy quickly became an audience favorite. Her mother made those bows and would spend two hours every night brushing and putting Dorothy's hair up in curlers. Of course, her natural energy and mischievousness added to her appeal. Although she stated that "the boys [in the series] were given all the best lines", in Love Business Dorothy has some of the funniest lines in the entire series, delivered while Chubby is practicing his lines on a cutout of Greta Garbo in front of a movie house:
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- Chubby: Oh, my dear, hear the pleas in my whispers.
- Dorothy: Oh, my dear, hear the fleas in my whiskers.
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- Chubby: If love is like a rose, I will nip my rose in the bud.
- Dorothy: If love is like a rose, I will stick my nose in the mud.
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- Chubby: My heart is filled with joy. I want to trip and dance.
- Dorothy: My heart is filled with joy. I want to rip my pants.
Though never once addressed as such on screen, her official studio name was "Echo," since in early pictures she was cast as Chubby's younger sister, with a smart-alecky compulsion to repeat as best she could whatever he'd say. "Teacher's Pet" and "Love Business" are notable examples. Overall, she appeared in twenty-four Our Gang comedies over three years. Of her acting days she says, "It wasn't really much fun, working every day and going to school besides. By the age of ten, of course, the movie careers of most of us were finished."
In 1975 the San Francisco Examiner reported she was very happy working as a senior clerk in the school of journalism at UC-Berkeley, where she'd been for nine years since obtaining a divorce in Billings, Montana, and moving back up the coast with her two children. DeBorba was a native of Livermore, California (San Francisco Bay area).
DeBorba was one of the last living Our Gangers from the original series. Surviving members are Jackie Cooper, Dickie Moore, Jean Darling, Robert Blake, Sidney Kibrick, Marianne Edwards, Jerry Tucker, and Jackie Lynn Taylor.
On June 2, 2010, DeBorba died at the age of 85.
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