Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien (born January 15, 1937) is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history. In her later career, she appeared on stage and in supporting film roles.
She was born Angela Maxine O'Brien; (she later changed her name to Margaret following the success of the film Journey for Margaret, in which she played the title role). Her father Lawrence O'Brien, a circus performer, died before she was born.[1]; 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 Journey For Margaret and The Canterville Ghost co-star Robert Young.
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Acted in
Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story
2023
as Herself
This Is Our Christmas
2018
as Mrs. Foxworth
Prepper's Grove
2018
as Gigi
Impact Event
2018
as Amanda
Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill!
2017
as Bridgette's Grandmother
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2017
as Ms. Stevenson
Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity
2015
as Self
A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas!
2011
as Self - Interviewee
Frankenstein Rising
2010
The Craven Cove Murders
2002
as Fan
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star
2002
as Self - Actress
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's
1998
as Self
Creaturealm: From the Dead
1998
as Herself
Hollywood Mortuary
1998
as Herself
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
Sunset After Dark
1996
as Betty Corman
The Story of Lassie
1994
as Self
Meet Me in St. Louis: The Making of an American Classic
1994
as Self
The New Lassie
1989
Tales from the Darkside
1984
as Mildred Webster
Murder, She Wrote
1984
as Jane
Showbiz Goes to War
1982
as (archive footage)
Hotel
1982
as Martha Connelly
Hollywood’s Children
1982
as Self (archive footage)
Amy
1981
as Hazel Johnson
That's Entertainment!
1974
as (archive footage)
Death in Space
1974
as Pam Rhodes
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
1973
as Self (archive footage)
Anabelle Lee
1971
The Pledge of Allegiance
1971
as Narrator
Marcus Welby, M.D.
1969
as Neva Phillips
Split Second to an Epitaph
1968
as Louise Prescott
Adam-12
1968
as Mrs. Pendleton
Ironside
1967
as Louise Prescott
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
1967
as Self
Combat!
1962
as Marianne Fraisnet
Dr. Kildare
1961
as Nurse Lori Palmer
The Aquanauts
1960
as Ellen Marstand
Heller in Pink Tights
1960
as Della Southby
Adventures in Paradise
1959
as Phyllis Willoughby
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
1959
as Jean
Rawhide
1959
as Betsy Stauffer
Perry Mason
1957
as Virginia Trent
Wagon Train
1957
as Julie Revere
The Steve Allen Show
1956
as Self - Singer
Glory
1956
as Clarabel Tilbee
Matinee Theater
1955
Climax!
1954
as Kathy Fathian
Climax!
1954
as Chip
Climax!
1954
as Angie Hawley
The Oscars
1953
as Self
General Electric Theater
1953
as Sarah Trask
The Eyes of Two People
1952
as Catherine McDermott
Her First Romance
1951
as Betty Foster
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Margaret
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Laura
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Elaine
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Self - Intermission Guest
What's My Line?
1950
as Self - Mystery Guest
Robert Montgomery Presents
1950
as Ginny
The Secret Garden
1949
as Mary Lennox
Little Women
1949
as Beth
Studio One
1948
Studio One
1948
as Julie Denton
Studio One
1948
as Jenny Walker
Big City
1948
as Midge
Tenth Avenue Angel
1948
as Flavia Mills
The Unfinished Dance
1947
as 'Meg' Merlin
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
Three Wise Fools
1946
as Sheila O'Monahan
Bad Bascomb
1946
as Emmy
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
1945
as Selma Jacobson
Music for Millions
1944
as Mike
Meet Me in St. Louis
1944
as "Tootie" Smith
The Canterville Ghost
1944
as Lady Jessica de Canterville
Twenty Years After
1944
as (archive footage)
Jane Eyre
1943
as Adele Varens
Lost Angel
1943
as Alpha
Madame Curie
1943
as Irene Curie - Age 5
Thousands Cheer
1943
as Customer in Red Skelton Skit
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
1943
as Margaret
You, John Jones!
1943
as Daughter
Journey for Margaret
1942
as Margaret
Babes on Broadway
1941
as Maxine (uncredited)
Love Is in Bel Air
as Vivienne