RS man makes it in Hollywood

One of the hardworking volunteers at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River recently came across a portrait of a young man named Mickey Daniels and inquired about who he was. Daniels, from Rock Springs, was a prolific film actor in the 1920s and 1930s.

Mickey Daniels, born Richard Daniels Jr. in Rock Springs Oct. 11, 1914, was the son of Richard Daniels, himself an actor born in Wales, and his wife Hannah. Mickey started performing young, and he was spotted by a talent agent during a performance at the Rialto Theater on South Main Street in 1921. Like many theaters of the time, the Rialto offered live entertainment as well as films.

By the next year he'd been signed by producer Hal Roach for the ground-breaking "Our Gang" series, whose stars were a group of loveable, ragtag kids.

Daniels appeared in over 100 short and feature films between 1922 and 1941. Film buffs in particular remember him as Mickey the Truant Officer in 1933's Fish Hooky, one episode of the "Our Gang" series later syndicated on television.

Daniels left acting in the 1940s and died in San Diego, California, in 1970.