(born January 15, 1937) is an American film actress, and although her career was brief, was one of the most highly regarded child actors in cinema history.
She was born as Angela Maxine O'Brien. Her father, a circus performer, died months after her birth; Margaret's mother, Gladys Flores, was a well-known flamenco dancer who often performed with her sister Marissa, also a dancer. Margaret is of half-Irish and half-Spanish ancestry.
She made her first film appearance in 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 convincing acting style. By 1943, she was considered a big enough star to have a cameo appearance in the all-star military show finale of Thousands Cheer.
She played a young French girl, and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French accent, in Jane Eyre (1944). Arguably her most memorable role was as "Tootie" in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland. O'Brien had by this time added singing and dancing to her achievements and was rewarded with an Academy Juvenile Award the following year as the "outstanding child actress of 1944." Her other successes included The Canterville Ghost (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (1949), but she was unable to make the transition to adult roles.
A 1946 Looney Tunes short, Book Revue, placed a caricature of O'Brien in the role of Little Red Riding Hood.
Margaret 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?". O'Brien's acting roles as an adult have been few and far between, mostly in small independent films. However, she does do occasional interviews, mostly for the Turner Classic Movies cable network. She played the role of Betsy Stauffer, a small town nurse, in "The Incident of the Town in Terror" on television's Rawhide. Another rare television outing was as a guest star on the popular Marcus Welby, M.D. in the early 1970s, reuniting Margaret with her The Canterville Ghost co-star Robert Young.
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.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
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O'Brien has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard, and for television at 1620 Vine St. In 2006, she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University.
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 subject
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 Adele 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 Girls Hand in Hand US title
1956 Glory Clarabel Tilbee
1960 Heller in Pink Tights Della Southby
1965 Agente S 3 S operazione Uranio
1968 Annabel Lee
1974 Diabolique Wedding aka Diabolic Wedding
That's Entertainment! Herself and archive footage
1981 Amy Hazel Johnson aka Amy on the Lips
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 subject
2006 Store Herself
2009 Dead in Love Cris
(source:wikipedia)
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