Eugene Jackson

Eugene Jackson was an American actor who began performing as a child and became a regular in the Our Gang short comedies of the silent Pathé era, filling the place of Ernie Morrison, the series' first black cast member. His Our Gang character was nicknamed Pineapple, after a haircut that resembled the fruit. He played Humidor in Mary Pickford's Little Annie Rooney (1925). He also appeared in Hearts in Dixie (1929), an early all-talking studio production with a mostly African American cast, and he was called the first African American child to be given a speaking role in a major motion picture. On television he had a recurring role as Julia's uncle on Julia, the first network sitcom with a black female lead. His last major feature was The Addams Family (1991), and he wrote an autobiography published in 1999. He died in 2001.