Danny Bonaduce, Alfalfa Switzer

You watch old episodes of The Partridge Family. I know it's after the fact, but didn't Danny Bonaduce end up pretty much how you'd expect? Or maybe it just seems that way in retrospect.
I don't know to what degree an actor's real personality comes through after you've watched them on TV for years.

One example of a child star whose personality was well concealed behind his screen persona was Alfalfa Switzer. He was a monster. He played practical jokes. He urinated on the movie lights creating a stench when they were turned on. He did something---did it involve fishhooks and the seat of Spanky McFarlane's pants? Spanky went to the emergency room and required stitches. He told Darla he had a present for her in his pocket. She reached in and pulled out her hand covered with blood. He had a razor or something in his pocket. I assume this was a jacket pocket. She needed stitches, too.

There was a rivalry between Spanky and Alfalfa. They were competing for screen time. But Alfalfa was friends with Butch, the one kid he wasn't competing with. They couldn't replace each other in an episode. Butch was a nice kid playing a mean kid and Alfalfa was a mean kid playing a nice kid.

Alfalfa was shot a couple of times, once by an unidentified assailant when he was about twenty. He survived that one. He was shot and killed when he was in his thirties.

Alfalfa ran a business. He was a hunting guide. His customers included some big stars.

Alfalfa borrowed a hunting dog which got lost. So he offered a fifty dollar reward for the dog's return. He got the dog back and returned it to its owner. But, later, Alfalfa became convinced that the dog's owner owed him the fifty bucks he had shelled out as a reward. So he and a friend got drunk. They went to the guy's house. They forced their way in and demanded their money. The guy got a gun. Alfalfa and the man wrestled over the gun and a shot was fired into the ceiling.

Alfalfa immediately calmed down and he and his friend decided they would leave now, and that was when the man shot and killed him.

Alfalfa's friend was on his knees pleading for his life. And the guy heard sirens. Police were coming. So he didn't kill him, too.

That's what Alfalfa's friend said, and it was confirmed by the guy's stepson. But the killer was never prosecuted.