Career
When he joined the gang, Jackson replaced the series" first black member, Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison. Jackson was nicknamed Pineapple because of his haircut"s similarity to the shape of the pineapple fruit. He played the character Humidor, in one of Mary Pickford"s most successful films, Little Annie Rooney (1925).
He also starred in Hearts in Dixie (1929), one of the first all-talkie, big-studio productions to boast a predominately African-American cast.
He was the first African-American child to have a speaking part in a major motion picture. In television, Jackson II was a recurring character on Julia, the first network sitcom to have a female African-American lead, Diahann Carroll.
Eugene played Julia"s uncle. Jackson II"s last major feature film was The Addams Family (1991) with Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, and Christopher Lloyd.
He played a one-armed musician.
Jackson died of a heart attack in Compton, California on October 26, 2001. He was 84. He wrote an autobiography in 1999, that contains many pictures taken during his long career in show business.