RARE - Child Actress MARGARET O'BRIEN Signed STAR 4" X 5" inch photo YOUNG

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RARE - Child Actress MARGARET O'BRIEN Signed STAR 4" X 5" inch photo YOUNG SIGNED IN BLUE INK
BiographyCLOSE THE FULL BIOGRAPHY
This child star of the 1940s was best known for her natural, emotional style and her startling facility for tears. As Maxine O'Brien (her birth name), she first appeared in a civil defense film starring James Cagney, then in a bit in "Babes on Broadway" (both 1941). Sensing her potential, MGM signed her, changed her first name to Margaret and starred her in the tour de force "Journey for Margaret" (1942), as a terrified London war orphan who "adopts" reporter Robert Young. It was an adult, intelligent and slightly scary performance which made her an overnight star. She was loaned out to Fox for "Jane Eyre" (1944). O'Brien's next big showcase came with "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944). As Tootie Smith, the feisty but fragile little sister of Judy Garland, she was a bright point in a very good film, especially in her musical numbers with Garland and during a Halloween sequence in which she confronts a grouchy neighbor. For her performance, she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar. Her next two features, "Music for Millions" (1944) and the drama "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes" (1945) were also impressive. Two good roles came her way in 1949, as the tragic Beth in a remake of "Little Women" and as Mary Lennox in "The Secret Garden."
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Filmography
CAST: (feature film)
1. Story of Lassie, The (1994)
2. Amy (1981)
3. Heller in Pink Tights (1960) Della Southby
4. Glory (1956) Clarabel Tilbee
5. Her First Romance (1951) Betty Foster
6. Little Women (1949) Beth [March]
7. The Secret Garden (1949) Mary Lennox
8. Tenth Avenue Angel (1948) Flavia Mills
9. Big City (1948) Midge [also known as Mary Ellen Rachel O'Donnell Andrews Feldman]
10. The Unfinished Dance (1947) [Margaret] "Meg" Merlin
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Milestones
1954:Miniature Oscar stolen from her
1981:Returned to features with one shot appearance in "Amy" (released in 1984)
1960:Filmed busted pilot "Maggie"
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Notes
O'Brien's miniature Oscar was stolen from her in 1954. Twenty-one years later it was returned to her when it was located in a swap meet.
On her life as a child star: "I had a wonderful time. I really enjoyed it. I took it like a job, took it seriously. I had a mother who was really watching out for me. I think it's what you make of it. It could be something horrible if that's the way you want to look at it, but it was not. . . My mother saw that I had friends to play with; kids who were not in the movies." --Margaret O'Brien quoted in Classic Images, August 1993.
"How they really got me to cry is kind of interesting. June Allyson also did a lot of dramatic films, we were known as The Town Criers of MGM. We were always in competition: I wanted to cry better than June, and June wanted to cry better than me. The way my mother got me to cry was if I was having trouble with a scene, she'd say, 'why don't we have the make-up man come over and give you false tears?' Then I'd think to myself, 'they'll say I'm not as good as June,' and I'd start to cry." --Margaret O'Brien quoted in Classic Images, August 1993.
Margaret O'Brien (born Angela Maxine O'Brien; January 15, 1937)[1] is an American film, radio, television, and stage actress. Beginning a prolific career as a child actress in feature films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the age of four, O'Brien became one of the most popular child stars in cinema history and was honored with a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944. In her later career, she appeared on television, on stage, and in supporting film roles.
Contents
1
Life and career
1.1
Film
1.2
Television
2
Academy Award
3
Additional honors
4
Personal life
5
Filmography
6
Select radio credits
7
Accolades
7.1
Box office ranking
8
References
9
Bibliography
10
External links
Life and career
Margaret O'Brien was born Angela Maxine O'Brien; her name was later changed following the success of the film Journey for Margaret (1942), in which she played the title role. Her father, Lawrence O'Brien, a circus performer, died before she was born.[2] O'Brien's mother, Gladys Flores, was a well-known flamenco dancer who often performed with her sister Marissa, also a dancer. O'Brien is of half-Irish and half-Spanish ancestry. She was raised Catholic.[3]
Film
Margaret O'Brien in Journey for Margaret (1942)
Orson Welles, Margaret O'Brien and Joan Fontaine in Jane Eyre (1943)
Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
O'Brien made her first film appearance in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Babes on Broadway (1941) at the age of four, but it was the following year that her first major role brought her widespread attention. As a five-year-old in Journey for Margaret (1942), O'Brien won wide praise for her quite convincing acting style, unusual for a child of her age. By 1943, she was considered a big enough star to have a cameo appearance in the all-star military show finale of Thousands Cheer. Also In 1943, at the age of seven, Margaret co-starred in "You, John Jones," a "War Bond/Effort," short film, with James Cagney and Ann Sothern (playing their daughter), in which she dramatically recited President Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address." She played Adèle, a young French girl, and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French accent in Jane Eyre (1943).
Arguably her most memorable role was in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland. As Tootie Smith, the feisty but fragile little sister of Judy Garland, she was a bright point, especially in her musical numbers with Garland and during a Halloween sequence in which she confronts a grouchy neighbor. For her performance, she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar in 1944.
Margaret and June Allyson were known as "The Town Criers" of MGM. "We were always in competition: I wanted to cry better than June, and June wanted to cry better than me. The way my mother got me to cry was if I was having trouble with a scene, she'd say, 'why don't we have the make-up man come over and give you false tears?' Then I'd think to myself, 'they'll say I'm not as good as June,' and I'd start to cry."[4]
Her other successes included The Canterville Ghost (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), Bad Bascomb (1946) with Wallace Beery, and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (1949). She played Beth in the 1949 MGM release of Little Women, but she was unable to make the transition to adult roles.
O'Brien later shed her child star image in 1958 by appearing on the cover of Life magazine with the caption "The Girl's Grown", and was a mystery guest on the TV panel show What's My Line?.[5] O'Brien's acting appearances as an adult have been sporadic, mostly in small independent films and occasional television roles. She has also given interviews, mostly for the Turner Classic Movies cable network.
Television
O'Brien gave television credit for helping her to change her public image. In an interview in 1957, when she was 20, she said: "The wonderful thing about TV is that it has given me a chance to get out of the awkward age -- something the movies couldn't do for me. No movie producer could really afford to take a chance at handing me an adult role."[6]
On December 22, 1957, O'Brien starred in "The Young Years" on General Electric Theater.[7] She played the role of Betsy Stauffer, a small-town nurse, in "The Incident of the Town in Terror" on television's Rawhide. She appeared in an episode of Wagon Train in 1958. She made a guest appearance on a 1963 episode of Perry Mason as Virginia Trent in "The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe." In 1967, she made a guest appearance on the World War II TV drama Combat!. Also, in a 1968 two-part episode of Ironside ("Split Second to an Epitaph") O'Brien played a pharmacist who (quite the opposite of her usual screen persona) was involved in drug theft and was accessory to attempted murder of star Raymond Burr's Ironside. Another rare television outing was as a guest star on the popular Marcus Welby, M.D. in the early 1970s, reuniting O'Brien with her Journey for Margaret and The Canterville Ghost co-star Robert Young.
In 1991, O'Brien appeared in Murder, She Wrote, season 7, episode "Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?", reuniting O'Brien with her Tenth Avenue Angel co-star Angela Lansbury.
Academy Award
An image of Margaret O'Brien in Eiga no Tomo (November 1952)
O'Brien in Eiga no Tomo ("Film Friend" magazine; November 1952)
While O'Brien was growing up, her awards were always kept in a special room. One day in 1954, the family's maid asked to take O'Brien's Juvenile Oscar and two other awards home with her to polish, as she had done in the past.[8] After three days, the maid failed to return to work, prompting O'Brien's mother to discharge her, requesting that the awards be returned.[9] Not long after, O'Brien's mother, who had been sick with a heart condition, suffered a relapse and died.[8] In mourning, 17-year-old O'Brien forgot about the maid and the Oscar until several months later when she tried to contact her, only to find that the maid had moved and had left no forwarding address.[8][9]
Several years later, upon learning that the original had been stolen, the Academy promptly supplied O'Brien with a replacement Oscar, but O'Brien still held on to hope that she might one day recover her original Award.[8][9] In the years that followed, O'Brien attended memorabilia shows and searched antique shops, hoping she might find the original statuette, until one day in 1995 when Bruce Davis, then executive director of the Academy, was alerted that a miniature statuette bearing O'Brien's name had surfaced in a catalogue for an upcoming memorabilia auction.[8] Davis contacted a mutual friend of his and O'Brien's, who in turn phoned O'Brien to tell her the long-lost Oscar had been found.[8][9]
Memorabilia collectors Steve Neimand and Mark Nash were attending a flea market in 1995 when Neimand spotted a small Oscar with Margaret O'Brien's name inscribed upon it.[10] The two men decided to split the 0 asking price hoping to resell it at a profit and lent it to a photographer to shoot for an upcoming auction catalogue.[8] This led to Bruce Davis' discovery that the statuette had resurfaced and, upon learning of the award's history, Nash and Neimand agreed to return the Oscar to O'Brien.[8] On February 7, 1995, nearly 50 years after she had first received it, and nearly 40 years since it had been stolen, the Academy held a special ceremony in Beverly Hills to return the stolen award to O'Brien.[8][10] Upon being reunited with her Juvenile Oscar, Margaret O'Brien spoke to the attending journalists:
For all those people who have lost or misplaced something that was dear to them, as I have, never give up the dream of searching—never let go of the hope that you'll find it because after all these many years, at last, my Oscar has been returned to me.[11]
Additional honors
In February 1960, O'Brien was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6606 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 1634 Vine St.[12] In 1990, O'Brien was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award recognizing her outstanding achievements within the film industry as a child actress.[13] In 2006, she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University.
Personal life
She has been married twice, to Harold Allen, Jr. from 1959 to 1968, and later to Roy Thorsen. The latter marriage produced her only child, Mara Tolene Thorsen, born in 1977.
Filmography
Year
Film
Role
Other notes
1941
Babes on Broadway
Maxine, Little Girl at Audition
Uncredited
1942
Journey for Margaret
Margaret White
1943
You, John Jones!
Their daughter
Short film
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
Margaret
Thousands Cheer
Customer in Red Skelton Skit
Madame Curie
Irene Curie (at age 5)
Lost Angel
Alpha
1944
Jane Eyre
Adèle Varens
The Canterville Ghost
Lady Jessica de Canterville
Meet Me in St. Louis
'Tootie' Smith
Academy Juvenile Award
Music for Millions
Mike
1945
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
Selma Jacobson
1946
Bad Bascomb
Emmy
Three Wise Fools
Sheila O'Monahan
1947
The Unfinished Dance
'Meg' Merlin
1948
Big City
Midge
Tenth Avenue Angel
Flavia Mills
1949
Little Women
Beth March
The Secret Garden
Mary Lennox
1951
Her First Romance
Betty Foster
1952
Futari no hitomi
Katherine McDermott
US title: Girls Hand in Hand
1956
Glory
Clarabel Tilbee
1958
Little Women
Beth March
CBS musical TV movie
1960
Heller in Pink Tights
Della Southby
1963
Perry Mason
Virginia Trent
"The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe"; Season 6, Ep. 13, aired Jan. 3, 1963
1965
Agente S 3 S operazione Uranio
1967
Combat!
Marianne Fraisnet
"Entombed" Season 5, Ep. 16, aired Jan. 3, 1967
1970
Adam-12
Mrs. Pendleton
"Log 85: Sign of the Twins"; Season 3, Episode 12, aired Dec. 26, 1970
1974
Annabelle Lee
Diabolique Wedding
AKA Diabolic Wedding
That's Entertainment!
Herself and archive footage
1977
Testimony of Two Men
Flora Eaton
Television miniseries
1981
Amy
Hazel Johnson
AKA Amy on the Lips
1991
Murder, She Wrote
Florence
Episode: "Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?"
1996
Sunset After Dark
1998
Creaturealm: From the Dead
Herself
Segment: Hollywood Mortuary
2000
Child Stars: Their Story
Herself
AKA Child Stars
2002
Dead Season
Friendly Looking Lady
2004
The Mystery of Natalie Wood
Herself
2005
Boxes
Herself
Short film
2006
Store
Herself
2009
Dead in Love
Cris
2009–2011
Project Lodestar Sagas
Livia Wells
2010
Frankenstein Rising
2010
Elf Sparkle and the Special Red Dress
Mrs. Claus (voice)
2017
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Ms. Stevenson
2017
Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill!
Bridgette's Grandmother
2018
Prepper's Grove
Gigi
2018
This Is Our Christmas
Mrs. Foxworth
2018
Impact Event
Amanda
Select radio credits
Year
Program
Episode
Airdate
Writer (original story)
Character Role
Notes
mp3
1943[14]
The Screen Guild Theater[14]
"Journey for Margaret"[14][15]
5 April 1943[14]
William Lindsay White
Margaret Davis (girl)
The Lady Esther Presents The Screen Guild Players.[14] Related movie: Journey for Margaret.
mp3
1947[16]
Philco Radio Time[16] (with Bing Crosby)[16]
28 May 1947[16]
self (as guest)[16]
mp3
1948
Lux Radio Theatre
"Bad Bascomb"
1 March 1948
Emmy (girl)
Western radio drama involving a Mormon emigrant wagon train. Related movie: Bad Bascomb.
mp3
1948[16]
Philco Radio Time[16][17] (with Bing Crosby)[16]
"St. Patrick's Day Program"[15]
17 March 1948[16][17]
self (as guest)[16][17]
Saint Patrick's Day special.
mp3
1948[18][19]
Suspense[18][19][20]
"The Screaming Woman"[18][19][20]
25 November 1948[18][19]
Ray Bradbury[19][20]
Margaret Leary (girl)
Thanksgiving themed radio drama.
Agnes Moorehead[18] as the screaming woman.[19]
Considered one of the best episodes of Suspense and old-time radio overall.[19]
mp3
1949
The MGM Theater of the Air
"The Youngest Profession"
25 November 1949
Ira Marion (adaption to radio)
Joan Lyons
Classical tale of the teenagers, the autograph hounds, who also get their names.
Accolades
Year
Award
Honor
Result
Ref.
1945
Academy Award
Juvenile Award for Outstanding Child Actress of 1944
Honored
[21]
1960
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Star of Motion Pictures – 6606 Hollywood Blvd.
Inducted
[12]
Star of Television – 1634 Vine Street.
Inducted
1990
Young Artist Award
Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award
Honored
[13]