Edith Fellows
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- May 20, 1923
- Died
- June 26, 2011 (aged 88)
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Biography
Edith Fellows was born on May 20, 1923, in Boston, Massachusetts. When she was a year old, she and her father and grandmother moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. As a toddler, Edith was pigeon-toed and had trouble walking, and one doctor suggested that dance lessons might cure this condition. At age four, Edith entered Henderson's School of Dance, where she was spotted by a man claiming to be a talent scout, who told her grandmother that he could get Edith into show business for a fifty-dollar fee. The dance school raised the money, but when Edith and her grandmother arrived in Hollywood, they discovered that the address the man had given them did not exist, and they realized he was a fraud. Stranded in Hollywood with no means to return to North Carolina, Edith's grandmother began doing housework to earn a living. While she worked, she left Edith with a neighbor and her young son. One day Edith was taken along when the neighbor's son had an audition for the film Movie Night (1929), and she ended up getting the part. Although she never become a child star, Edith appeared in many popular films of the 1930s, most notably Pennies from Heaven (1936). She also proved herself to be a very versatile actress, playing roles ranging from a spoiled rich girl, as in Heart of the Rio Grande (1942), to a poor orphan girl, as in Pennies from Heaven. Edith was even given her own series, The Five Little Peppers, while under contract to Columbia, and she made four of the Pepper films (the first was Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1939)) in two years. Between 1929 and 1954, Edith appeared in some fifty films, mostly in juvenile roles due to her short 4' 10" stature. But her career suddenly slowed down in the mid-1950s. Between 1955 and 1980, she appeared in only one film, Lilith (1964), in which she had a bit part. During this time, Edith chose to focus on her family life; she had married producer Freddie Fields in 1946, and their only child, daughter Kathy, was born in 1947. But Edith and Fields divorced in 1955, and the end of her marriage, coupled with other factors, caused Edith to have a nervous breakdown. She recovered, and in 1981, she returned to acting in numerous supporting roles on television. In 1985, fellow former child actor Jackie Cooper announced plans to make a TV movie based on Edith's life, but this project never happened.
Known For
Filmography
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
Movie · as Self
ER
TV · as Sadie Hubbell · 1 ep
In the Mood
Movie · as Mrs. Long, Judy's Mother
The Hills Have Eyes Part 2
Movie · as Mrs. Wilson
Grace Kelly
Movie · as Edith Head
Hollywood’s Children
Movie · as Self
Between Two Brothers
Movie · as Victim's Wife
Cagney & Lacey
TV · as Mrs. Isbecki · 1 ep
St. Elsewhere
TV · as Mrs. Sabin · 1 ep
The Brady Brides
TV · 1 ep
The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell
Movie · as Self (clip from "Pennies from Heaven")
Lilith
Movie · as Patient (uncredited)
Heart of the Rio Grande
Movie · as Connie Lane
Stardust on the Sage
Movie · as Judy Drew
Criminal Investigator
Movie · as Ellen
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4
Movie · as Self
Girls' Town
Movie · as Sue Norman
Her First Beau
Movie · as Milly Lou
Music in My Heart
Movie · as Mary O'Malley
Nobody's Children
Movie · as Pat
Five Little Peppers at Home
Movie · as Polly Pepper
Five Little Peppers in Trouble
Movie · as Polly Pepper
Out West with the Peppers
Movie · as Polly Pepper
Her First Romance
Movie · as Linda Strong
Five Little Peppers And How They Grew
Movie · as Polly Pepper
Pride of the Blue Grass
Movie · as Midge Griner
City Streets
Movie · as Winnie Brady
Little Miss Roughneck
Movie · as Foxine LaRue
The Little Adventuress
Movie · as Pinky Horton
Life Begins with Love
Movie · as Dodie Martin
Tugboat Princess
Movie · as 'Princess' Judy
And So They Were Married
Movie · as Brenda Farnham
Pennies from Heaven
Movie · as Patsy Smith
The Keeper of the Bees
Movie · as Jean Marie Meredith / Little Scout
Dinky
Movie · as Sally
She Married Her Boss
Movie · as Annabel Barclay
One Way Ticket
Movie · as Ellen
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Movie · as Australia Wiggs
This Side of Heaven
Movie · as Felicia - Minister's Daughter (uncredited)
Cross Streets
Movie · as Little Sister
Jane Eyre
Movie · as Adele Rochester
His Greatest Gamble
Movie · as Alice (as a child)
Kid Millions
Movie · as Little Girl in Ice Cream Number (uncredited)
Two Alone
Movie · as Rogers' Daughter (uncredited)
Mush and Milk
Movie · as Edith
Law and Lawless
Movie · as Betty Kelley
The Rider of Death Valley
Movie · as Betty Joyce
Divorce In The Family
Movie · as Little Girl with Kite
Emma
Movie · as Gypsy as a Child (uncredited)
Birthday Blues
Movie · as Girl with String in Mouth
The Penguin Pool Murder
Movie · as Little Girl at Aquarium (uncredited)
Second Hand Kisses
Movie · as Orphan girl
Daddy Long Legs
Movie · as Orphan (uncredited)
Huckleberry Finn
Movie · as Schoolgirl (uncredited)
Cimarron
Movie · as (uncredited)
Shivering Shakespeare
Movie · as Girls Scared of Elephant
Movie Night
Movie · as Daughter
Madame X
Movie · as Child at Puppet Show (uncredited)