Matthew Beard Jr. was an American actor. As a child actor, he was most famous for playing Stymie in the Our Gang short comedy films of 1930–1935. The role was so well known that he adopted the name Stymie Beard, and was so credited in some later roles, such as his 1978 appearance in The Buddy Holly Story.
Beard as "Stymie" in School's Out
Beard, Pete the Pup, and Bobby Hutchins in School's Out (1930)
Our Gang is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the producer of the Laurel and Hardy films, Our Gang shorts were produced from 1922 to 1944, spanning the silent film and early sound film periods of American cinema. Our Gang is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way; Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children, rather than have them imitate adult acting styles. The series also broke new ground by portraying white and black children interacting as equals during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in the United States.
Title card for the 1937 Our Gang comedy short Rushin' Ballet
The theatrical poster for the 1927 Our Gang comedy Baby Brother, in which Allen "Farina" Hoskins (center) paints a Black baby with white shoe polish so that he can sell him to a lonely rich boy, Joe Cobb (right), as a baby brother
Left to right: Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, Andy Samuel, Allen "Farina" Hoskins, Mickey Daniels and Joe Cobb in a 1923 still from one of the earliest Our Gang comedies
Jackie Cooper in the 1930 short School's Out