Allen Farina Hoskins

Actor. Born Allen Clayton Hoskins, a Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame member and arguably the first black child star, he is best known for playing the character of Farina in some 300 of the Our Gang slap-stick comedy short films from 1922 to 1931. Farina was intended to be the typical pickaninny in the tradition of the character Topsy from Uncle Tom's Cabin. Later on, as his character became one of the better known ones and as Allen got older, he developed the character in his own special style apart from the stereotype he was original cast as. His character of "Farina" is derived from a type of cereal. While acting in Our Gang, Farina became one of its most popular characters and later on (in his last contract with the Hal Roach Studios) he was earning $350 a week, more than any other child star at that time. Farina outgrew the series in 1931 at the age of eleven, being replaced by Matthew "Stymie" Beard. Afterwards, Allen got some small roles in several feature films. He and his sister Jannie Hoskins (who played several characters in the Our Gang short films), had a vaudeville act. Allen proudly served his country in the Army during World War II and afterwards drifted away from performing. Eventually, he made a successful career at Los Angeles area medical centers helping disabled young people with drug problems and mental illnesses. Hoskins rejected contentions that his "Our Gang" role perpetuated racial prejudices and stereotypes. When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Oakland, California in 1975, along with Ruby Dee, Hall Johnson, Abbey Lincoln, Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen, Louis Stamford Peterson and Fredi Washington, Hoskins told a reporter "The message, I think, was that we're all just people, sometimes good, sometimes bad."