|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Member Number: 9365
Margaret O'Brien (born January 15, 1937 in San Diego, California) is an American film actress, and although her career was brief, was one of the most highly regarded child actors in cinema history.
Born 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. 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. She played the role of Betsy Stauffer, a small town nurse, in "The Incident of the Town in Terror" on Rawhide.
Margaret later shed her child star image in 1958 by appearing on the cover of Life Magazine with the caption "The Girl's Grown"'. 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. One 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.
She has been married twice, to Harold Allen, Jr. from 1959 to 1968, and later to Roy Thorsen. The later marriage produced her only child, Mara Tolene Thorsen, born in 1977. Margaret is that rare child star who did not wind up fighting off poverty and addictions in later life. All her memories of her child star days are happy ones, except for working with the difficult Wallace Beery, who would pinch her to the point where crew members would have to protect her.
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.
AccomplishmentsFilmography
- Babes on Broadway (1941)
- Journey for Margaret (1942)
- You, John Jones! (1943) (short subject)
- Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943)
- Thousands Cheer (1943)
- Madame Curie (1943)
- Lost Angel (1943)
- Jane Eyre (1944)
- The Canterville Ghost (1944)
- Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
- Music for Millions (1944)
- Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)
- Bad Bascomb (1946)
- Three Wise Fools (1946)
- The Unfinished Dance (1947)
- Big City (1948)
- Tenth Avenue Angel (1948)
- Little Women (1949)
- The Secret Garden (1949)
- Her First Romance (1951)
- Girls Hand in Hand (1952)
- Glory (1956)
- Heller in Pink Tights (1960)
- Annabelle Lee (1968)
- Diabolic Wedding (1974)
- Amy (1981)
- Sunset After Dark (1996)
- Creaturealm: From the Dead (1998)
- Hollywood Mortuary (1998)
- Child Stars (2000)
- Dead Season (2002)
- Mumsie (2003)
- The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004)
- Boxes (2005) (short subject)
- Store (2006)
Humanarchives.org provides the Angela O'Brien archive to help educate and promote humanity. Join Us
Angela O'Brien Search Results
Angela O'Brien News and Information
RSS news is based on the words "Angela" and "O'Brien" so the information provided can be unrelated to "Angela O'Brien" specifically.
Midway murder, mayor’s day in court top the docket for 2009 Ottawa Citizen, Canada - On April 27, Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien is scheduled to finally have his day in court to defend himself on accusations of attempted bribery and purported ... |
Winners of Losers and the year Irish Times, Ireland - Others exposed to ISTC included Seán FitzPatrick and Denis O'Brien. O'Mahoney remains chairman of the Pensions Board, a nominee of Minister for Social and ... |
Blades Page: They've got the power Naples Daily News, FL - Scoring fewer points but key for longer slap shots and puck possession are defensemen Doug O’Brien and AJ Thelen. Personnel might be the biggest reason the ... Blades still trying to end frustration against Checkers tonight Blades fall apart in third, lose to Checkers again |
Adalian Column: Polishing Up the Crystal Ball Television Week, MI - Conan O’Brien will do fine as host of “The Tonight Show”—but you probably won’t be able to tell it from the media coverage. Now that Jay Leno is out of the ... |
Bishop Fenwick High School honor roll The Salem News, MA - Seniors: Margaret Bolt, Angela Bray, Ariana Chalifour, Christina Cipriani, Kathryn Delsapio, Lauran DiCarlo, Andrew DiNuccio, Emily DiOrio, Elizabeth Fagan, ... |
Conviction upheld in Blackmond murder case Washington Examiner, DC - Angela O’Brien argued that she should get a new trial in part because prosecutors relied on the testimony of Saami Shaibani, a self-described expert on ... Appeal denied in child's beating death |
 BBC News | Galw am ymchwiliad i gyfiawnder BBC News, UK - Mae'r cynnig gafodd ei gyflwyno i fwrdd Cyngor Caerdydd hefyd yn galw am ymchwiliad i achos Michael O'Brien. Cafodd o ei garcharu ar gam am lofruddio'r ... |
College Bills Wallop Families Wall Street Journal - By PHILIP SHISHKIN The day after Thanksgiving, Glen O'Brien had bad news for his two children, who were visiting from college. With his electronics business ... |
Broken foot sidelines Lighty The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com, OH - Athletic trainer Vince O'Brien said Thursday night that Lighty initially believed he just rolled his ankle. "He didn't think much of it," O'Brien said. ... |
 Playbill.com | Star System: A Preview of the 2009 Broadway Season Playbill.com, NY - The drama, directed by ever-dependable Jack O'Brien, is "the story of a world traveling photojournalist and a New York gallery owner who discover each other ... |
Angela O'Brien Archive References
Are there any errors in this archive? The information presented is as provided by a number of possible sources including: Wikipedia, NNDB, IMDB, Answers.com and the archive administrator - contact admin with any corrections or concerns.
