Biography for
Shirley Jean Rickert More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

25 March 1926, Seattle, Washington, USA

Date of Death

6 February 2009, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA

Mini Biography

Shirley Jean Rickert won a baby contest in Seattle when she was about 1-1/2 and her mother relocated the entire family to Hollywood, as she was sure she had a child star. Her first movie was How's My Baby? (1930) with Monte Collins and T. Roy Barnes. Shortly after that she went on an interview at the Hal Roach studio and became a part of the "Our Gang" series. She left the Gang to go to Darmour Studios to play Tomboy Tailor with Mickey Rooney and Billy Barty. In subsequent years she worked in more than 100 movies, mostly musicals. When they stopped making major musicals in Hollywood she became a stripper in burlesque and traveled all over the US and Canada ,playing in burlesque theaters and nightclubs. Her mother took care of her daughter while she traveled and, when her mother died, she (for some reason she never figured out) moved to Buffalo, NY - you're either born in Buffalo or you're transferred there, but you don't voluntarily move to Buffalo.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Shirley Jean 'Rickert' Measures

Trivia

Designed and printed a Shirley Jean Memorabilia Catalog which offers Our Gang items at a price the average Our Gang fan can afford...it is NOT for collectors, just the people who still like the Our Gang/Little Rascals.

Married and divorced twice and had one daughter, Melody.

After her film career (early 1950s) she became a blonde-maned exotic dancer who professionally went by "Gilda and Her Crowning Glory" and played both in the States and Canada.

After she quit burlesque, she found a diverse variety of jobs to maintain an income: bartender, secretary, theater sales director, truck driver for the Air Force, dress shop saleslady, nuts and bolts saleslady, marketing director, and jewelry designer/painter.

Shirley's "Our Gang" spit-curled blonde character "look" was styled after Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty Ruth Taylor who was the star of the original "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" on stage.

Personal Quotes

Detroit was one of the towns where I would appear on a kiddie TV show on Saturday morning as Shirley Jean of the Our Gang/Little Rascals, and disrobe on stage at night for the little kiddies' parents.

I see more flesh in television commercials today than I used to see in burlesque.

[We were] all just kids playing together. We had fun. The mothers on the other hand, were awful. Stage mothers are just vile women, including my own. [It was] my mother's dream, but it wasn't mine.

Where Are They Now

(June 2003) Was cast in a reprise of the Stillwater Players Among Others production of Woddy Allen's "Don't Drink The Water" as the Chef.