Margaret O'Brien

Margaret OBrien 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 OBrien 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 OBrien a circus performer died before she was born1 Margarets mother Gladys Flores was a wellknown flamenco dancer who often performed with her sister Marissa also a dancer Margaret is of halfIrish and halfSpanish 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 fiveyearold in Journey for Margaret 1942 OBrien won wide praise for her convincing acting style By 1943 she was considered a big enough star to have a cameo appearance in the allstar 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 OBrien 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 OBrien 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 Girls Grown and was a mystery guest on the TV panel show Whats My Line OBriens 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 televisions Rawhide Another rare television outing was as a guest star on the popular Marcus Welby MD in the early 1970s reuniting Margaret with her Journey For Margaret and The Canterville Ghost costar Robert Young Description above from the Wikipedia article Margaret OBrien licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia