Darla Hood was born on November 8, 1931, in the small town of Leedey, Oklahoma. She began her association with "Our Gang" at the tender age of 2 1/2.
Her father, James Claude Hood Jr., a banker, and her mother, Elizabeth Davner Hood, encouraged her musical talents with singing and dancing lessons in Oklahoma City.
Darla made an unscheduled singing debut at the Edison Hotel in Times Square, and the crowd roared in appreciation. Coincidentally, Joe Rivkin, an agent of Hal Roach, spotted her and signed her to a 7-year contract at $75 weekly.
Darla went on to perform as the leading "Rascals" actress in 51 short films and a television movie. She recalled finding her off-camera time on set lonely, as the boys tended to group together and play games.
At the beginning of her association with the "Little Rascals", she appeared opposite Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the feature film, The Bohemian Girl (1936).
Darla's tenure as most popular "Little Rascals" actress began in 1935's Our Gang Follies of 1936 (1935) and her finale, Wedding Worries (1941). Almost 40 years later, she voiced her "Little Rascals" character in the animated off-screen special, The Little Rascals' Christmas Special (1979).
During World War II, few "Our Gang" shorts were made due to film scarcity. By the time the series was revived in 1945, Darla had already outgrown her role. She had some trouble dealing with the transition into a teen actor and her career faltered badly.
She graduated with honors from Fairfax High School and found some work with Ken Murray's popular "Blackbirds" variety show on the Los Angeles stage. She also worked behind the scenes in the post-war years.
With her first husband, Robert W. Decker, she formed the vocal group "Darla Hood and the Enchanters", which provided incidental background music for films and television shows. She also made appearances in nightclubs and on television variety shows.
In the field of voice-over work, Darla became a well-oiled impressionist and trick voice artist, providing voices for cartoons and commercials, including "Chicken of the Sea" and "Campbell's Soup".
In June 1957, Darla divorced her first husband and married her former manager, Jose Granson, a musical publisher. She had three children with Granson.
Hood remained small in show business until her untimely end, which came on June 13, 1979, when she died of congestive heart failure at a Hollywood hospital.
