Margaret O'Brien
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- January 15, 1937 (age 89)
- Birthplace
- San Diego, California, USA
Biography
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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Margaret O'Brien, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Photos
Filmography
Love Is in Bel Air
Movie · as Vivienne
This Is Our Christmas
Movie · as Mrs. Foxworth
Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story
Movie · as Self
Impact Event
Movie · as Amanda
Prepper's Grove
Movie · as Gigi
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Movie · as Ms. Stevenson
Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill!
Movie · as Bridgette's Grandmother
Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity
Movie · as Self
A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas!
Movie · as Self - Interviewee
Frankenstein Rising
Movie
Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas the Horse
Movie · as Miss Coyote (voice)
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs: America's Greatest Music in the Movies
Movie · as Self
The Craven Cove Murders
Movie · as Fan
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star
Movie · as Self - Actress
Creaturealm: From the Dead
Movie · as Herself
Hollywood Mortuary
Movie · as Herself
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's
Movie · as Self
Sunset After Dark
Movie · as Betty Corman
E! True Hollywood Story
TV · 1 ep
The Story of Lassie
Movie · as Self
Meet Me in St. Louis: The Making of an American Classic
Movie · as Self
When We Were Young: Growing Up on the Silver Screen
Movie · as Self
The New Lassie
TV · 1 ep
Tales from the Darkside
TV · as Mildred Webster · 1 ep
Murder, She Wrote
TV · as Jane · 1 ep
Showbiz Goes to War
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood’s Children
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
Hotel
TV · as Martha Connelly · 1 ep
Amy
Movie · as Hazel Johnson
Testimony of Two Men
TV · as Flora Bumpstead Eaton · 3 eps
That's Entertainment!
Movie · as (archive footage) (uncredited)
Death in Space
Movie · as Pam Rhodes
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
Movie · as Self (archive footage)
The Pledge of Allegiance
Movie · as Narrator
Diabolic Wedding
Movie
Marcus Welby, M.D.
TV · as Neva Phillips · 1 ep
Love, American Style
TV · 1 ep
Split Second to an Epitaph
Movie · as Louise Prescott
Adam-12
TV · as Mrs. Pendleton · 1 ep
Ironside
TV · as Louise Prescott · 1 ep
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
TV · as Self · 1 ep
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
TV · as Anne Lipscott · 1 ep
Combat!
TV · as Marianne Fraisnet · 1 ep
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
TV · as Self · 1 ep
Dr. Kildare
TV · as Nurse Lori Palmer · 1 ep
The Mike Douglas Show
TV · as Self · 1 ep
Heller in Pink Tights
Movie · as Della Southby
The Aquanauts
TV · as Ellen Marstand · 1 ep
Rawhide
TV · as Betsy Stauffer · 1 ep
Adventures in Paradise
TV · as Phyllis Willoughby · 1 ep
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
TV · as Jean · 1 ep
The Mystery of Thirteen
Movie · as Annie Brookes
Perry Mason
TV · as Virginia Trent · 1 ep
Wagon Train
TV · as Julie Revere · 1 ep
Glory
Movie · as Clarabel Tilbee
The Steve Allen Show
TV · as Self - Singer · 1 ep
Hollywood Preview
TV · as Self · 1 ep
Matinee Theater
TV · 3 eps
MGM Parade
TV · as Self · 1 ep
Climax!
TV · as Kathy Fathian, Chip, Angie Hawley · 1 ep
General Electric Theater
TV · as Sarah Trask · 1 ep
The Oscars
TV · as Self · 1 ep
The Eyes of Two People
Movie · as Catherine McDermott
Her First Romance
Movie · as Betty Foster
Lux Video Theatre
TV · as Margaret, Laura, Elaine, Self - Intermission Guest · 1 ep
Robert Montgomery Presents
TV · as Ginny · 1 ep
What's My Line?
TV · as Self · 2 eps
The Secret Garden
Movie · as Mary Lennox
Little Women
Movie · as Beth
Tenth Avenue Angel
Movie · as Flavia Mills
Big City
Movie · as Midge
Studio One
TV · as Julie Denton, Jenny Walker · 1 ep
The Ed Sullivan Show
TV · as Self · 2 eps
The Unfinished Dance
Movie · as 'Meg' Merlin
Kraft Television Theatre
TV · 1 ep
Bad Bascomb
Movie · as Emmy
Three Wise Fools
Movie · as Sheila O'Monahan
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
Movie · as Selma Jacobson
Meet Me in St. Louis
Movie · as 'Tootie' Smith
The Canterville Ghost
Movie · as Lady Jessica de Canterville
Music for Millions
Movie · as Mike
Twenty Years After
Movie · as (archive footage)
Jane Eyre
Movie · as Adele Varens
Madame Curie
Movie · as Irene Curie - Age 5
Thousands Cheer
Movie · as Drug Store Customer
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
Movie · as Margaret
Lost Angel
Movie · as Alpha
You, John Jones!
Movie · as Daughter
Journey for Margaret
Movie · as Margaret
Babes on Broadway
Movie · as Maxine (uncredited)