Former child star Sidney Kibrick, who walked away from Hollywood fame aged 15, having become a huge star playing the bad boy known as Woim in the Hal Roach-produced Our Gang comedy film shorts in the 1930s, died in hospital on Saturday, January 3, at the age of 97. His daughter confirmed the news to the Hollywood Reporter.

Having begun his career at just five years old, he appeared in around two dozen of the Our Gang and Little Rascals films between 1935 and 1939. His character Woim - Brooklynese for "worm" - he was the henchkid for the neighbourhood bully Butch (played by Tommy Bond). He was paid $750 a week, "a lot in those days, especially during the Depression," he said in a 2023 interview with Boomer Magazine. Outside of the shorts, he also had roles in feature films such as Just Around the Corner with Shirley Temple in 1938 and Jesse James with Tyrone Power in 1939.

While he was the envy of millions of children of the era he later admitted that it was incredibly hard work. In the 2023 chat he said: "It was a grind making those shorts. We'd have two hours of schooling in the morning and then work anywhere from six to 16 hours until we finished.

"There was a lot of work, no question about it, but our director Gordon Douglas was a terrific guy, and he was really able to get a lot out of each kid."

After a decade working, he had had enough by the age of 15, but struggled to convince his parents to let him quit the business.

"My parents wanted me to continue, but finally my mother went along with my wishes." He made his last onscreen credit in 1943 in the Bowery Boys movie Keep 'Em Slugging.

He never returned to the movies and instead went to college, eventually becoming a real estate developer in Southern California.

He continued to celebrate his time in Our Gang throughout his life, organising a reunion in 1981, and in 2022, he was pictured at the opening of an exhibit at the Hollywood Museum honouring the 100th anniversary of the Our Gang series.

Although it was over 80 years since his final screen appearance, he was still getting fan mail at the time of his death.