Margaret O'Brien | |
|---|---|
 O'Brien in 2002 | |
| Born | Angela Maxine O'Brien (1937-01-15)January 15, 1937 (age 89) San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1941–present |
| Known for | Meet Me in St. Louis |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Academy Juvenile Award (1944) |
Angela Maxine O'Brien (born January 15, 1937),[1] known professionally asMargaret O'Brien, is an American actress. Beginning a career in feature films forMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer at age four, O'Brien became a child star and received aJuvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944 for her role inMeet Me in St. Louis. In her later career, she appeared on television, stage, and in supporting film roles.
O'Brien has two stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame--one for film, and the other for television.[2]
O'Brien's mother, Gladys Flores (1895–1958), was aflamenco dancer who often performed with her sister Marissa, who was also a dancer. O'Brien is of half-Irish and half-Spanish ancestry. She was raised Catholic.[3]
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O'Brien made her first film appearance in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer'sBabes 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 inJourney for Margaret (1942), O'Brien won wide praise for her quite convincing acting style, unusual for a child of her age. By 1943, she was considered a big enough star to have a cameo appearance in the all-star military show finale ofThousands Cheer. Also in 1943, at the age of seven, Margaret co-starred inYou, John Jones!, an MGM short film for theWar Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry, withJames Cagney andAnn Sothern (playing her parents), in which she dramatically recited President Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address". She played Adèle, a youngFrench girl, and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French accent inJane Eyre (1943).
Arguably her most memorable role was inMeet Me in St. Louis (1944), oppositeJudy Garland.[citation needed] For her performance in this film as the younger sister "Tootie", she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar at the17th Academy Awards in 1944.[4]
Margaret andJune Allyson were known as "The Town Criers" of MGM. "We were always in competition: I wanted to cry better than June, and June wanted to cry better than me. The way my mother got me to cry was if I was having trouble with a scene, she'd say, 'why don't we have the make-up man come over and give you false tears?' Then I'd think to myself, 'they'll say I'm not as good as June,' and I'd start to cry."[5]
O'Brien‘s other successes includedThe Canterville Ghost (1944),Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945),Bad Bascomb (1946) withWallace Beery, and the first sound version ofThe Secret Garden (1949). She played Beth in the 1949 MGM release ofLittle Women, but she was unable to make the transition to adult roles.
O'Brien later shed her child star image, appearing on a 1958 cover ofLife magazine with the caption "How the Girl's Grown",[6] and was a mystery guest on the TV panel showWhat's My Line?[7] O'Brien's acting appearances as an adult have been sporadic, mostly in small independent films and occasional television roles. She has also given interviews, mostly for theTurner Classic Movies cable network.
O'Brien gave credit to television for helping her reform and modify her public image. In an interview in 1957, when she was 20, she said: "The wonderful thing about TV is that it has given me a chance to get out of the awkward age — something the movies couldn't do for me. No movie producer could really afford to take a chance at handing me an adult role."[8]
On November 20, 1950, O'Brien co-starred withCecil Parker in "The Canterville Ghost", onRobert Montgomery Presents on TV.[9] She appeared as the mystery guest onWhat's My Line? in 1957. On December 22, 1957, O'Brien starred in "The Young Years" onGeneral Electric Theater.[10] She played the role of Betsy Stauffer, a small-town nurse, in "The Incident of the Town in Terror" on television'sRawhide. She appeared in "The Sacramento Story" onWagon Train in 1958, playing Julie Revere, courted by Robert Horton's Flint McCullough. She made a guest appearance on a 1963 episode ofPerry Mason as Virginia Trent in "The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe". In 1967, she made a guest appearance on the World War II TV dramaCombat!. Also, in a 1968 two-part episode ofIronside ("Split Second to an Epitaph"), O'Brien played a pharmacist who (quite the opposite of her usual screen persona) was involved in drug theft and was accessory to attempted murder of starRaymond Burr'sIronside. Another rare television outing was as a guest star on the popularMarcus Welby, M.D. in the early 1970s, reuniting O'Brien with herJourney for Margaret andThe Canterville Ghost co-starRobert Young.
In 1991, O'Brien appeared inMurder, She Wrote, season 7, episode "Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?", reuniting O'Brien with herTenth Avenue Angel co-starAngela Lansbury.
While O'Brien was growing up, her awards were always kept in a special room. One day in 1954, the family's maid asked to take O'Brien'sJuvenile Oscar and two other awards home with her to polish, as she had done in the past.[11] After three days, the maid failed to return to work, prompting O'Brien's mother to discharge her, requesting that the awards be returned.[12] Not long after, O'Brien's mother, who had been sick with a heart condition, suffered a relapse and died.[11] In mourning, 17-year-old O'Brien forgot about the maid and the Oscar until several months later when she tried to contact her, only to find that the maid had moved and had left no forwarding address.[11][12]
Several years later, upon learning that the original had been stolen, the Academy promptly supplied O'Brien with a replacement Oscar, but O'Brien still held on to hope that she might one day recover her original Award.[11][12] In the years that followed, O'Brien attended memorabilia shows and searched antique shops, hoping she might find the original statuette, until one day in 1995 when Bruce Davis, then executive director of theAcademy, was alerted that a miniature statuette bearing O'Brien's name had surfaced in a catalogue for an upcoming memorabilia auction.[11] Davis contacted a mutual friend of his and O'Brien's, who in turn phoned O'Brien to tell her the long-lost Oscar had been found.[11][12]
Memorabilia collectors Steve Neimand and Mark Nash were attending a flea market in 1995 when Neimand spotted a small Oscar with Margaret O'Brien's name inscribed upon it.[13] The two men decided to split the $500 asking price hoping to resell it at a profit and lent it to a photographer to shoot for an upcoming auction catalogue.[11] This led to Bruce Davis' discovery that the statuette had resurfaced and, upon learning of the award's history, Nash and Neimand agreed to return the Oscar to O'Brien.[11] On February 7, 1995, nearly 50 years after she had first received it, and nearly 40 years since it had been stolen, the Academy held a special ceremony in Beverly Hills to return the stolen award to O'Brien.[11][13] Upon being reunited with her Juvenile Oscar, Margaret O'Brien spoke to the attending journalists:
For all those people who have lost or misplaced something that was dear to them, as I have, never give up the dream of searching—never let go of the hope that you'll find it because after all these many years, at last, my Oscar has been returned to me.[14]
In February 1960, O'Brien was honored with two stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6606 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 1634 Vine St.[2] In 1990, O'Brien was honored by theYoung Artist Foundation with itsFormer Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award recognizing her outstanding achievements within thefilm industry as achild actress.[15] In 2006, she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SunDeis Film Festival atBrandeis University.
O'Brien was married to Harold Allen Jr. from August 9, 1959 until their divorce in 1968.[16][17] She was married to steel-industry executive Roy Thorvald Thorsen[18] from June 6, 1974 until his death in 2018.[19] Their daughter, Mara Tolene Thorsen, was born in 1977.[19][20]
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Babes on Broadway | Maxine, Little Girl at Audition | Uncredited |
| 1942 | Journey for Margaret | Margaret White | |
| 1943 | You, John Jones! | Their daughter | Short film |
| Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case | Margaret | ||
| Thousands Cheer | Customer in Red Skelton Skit | ||
| Madame Curie | Irene Curie (at age 5) | ||
| Lost Angel | Alpha | ||
| 1944 | Jane Eyre | Adèle Varens | |
| The Canterville Ghost | Lady Jessica de Canterville | ||
| Meet Me in St. Louis | 'Tootie' Smith | Academy Juvenile Award | |
| Music for Millions | Mike | ||
| 1945 | Our Vines Have Tender Grapes | Selma Jacobson | |
| 1946 | Bad Bascomb | Emmy | |
| Three Wise Fools | Sheila O'Monahan | ||
| 1947 | The Unfinished Dance | 'Meg' Merlin | |
| 1948 | Big City | Midge | |
| Tenth Avenue Angel | Flavia Mills | ||
| 1949 | Little Women | Beth March | |
| The Secret Garden | Mary Lennox | ||
| 1951 | Her First Romance | Betty Foster | |
| 1952 | Futari no hitomi | Katherine McDermott | U.S. title:Girls Hand in Hand |
| 1956 | Glory | Clarabel Tilbee | |
| 1957 | What's My Line? | Mystery Guest | Season 8, aired Nov. 24, 1957 |
| 1958 | Little Women | Beth March | CBS musical TV movie |
| 1958 | Wagon Train | Julie Revere | "The Sacramento Story"; Season 1, Ep. 39, aired June 25, 1958 |
| 1960 | Heller in Pink Tights | Della Southby | |
| 1960 | New Comedy Showcase | Maggie Bradley | "Maggie"; Season 1, Ep. 5, aired Aug. 29, 1960 |
| 1962 | Dr. Kildare | Nurse Lori Palmer | "The Dragon"; Season 1, Ep. 20, aired Feb. 15, 1962 |
| 1963 | Perry Mason | Virginia Trent | "The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe"; Season 6, Ep. 13, aired Jan. 3, 1963 |
| 1965 | Agente S 3 S operazione Uranio | ||
| 1967 | Combat! | Marianne Fraisnet | "Entombed" Season 5, Ep. 16, aired Jan. 3, 1967 |
| 1970 | Adam-12 | Mrs. Pendleton | "Log 85: Sign of the Twins"; Season 3, Episode 12, aired Dec. 26, 1970 |
| 1974 | Annabelle Lee | ||
| Diabolique Wedding | AKADiabolic Wedding | ||
| That's Entertainment! | Herself and archive footage | ||
| 1977 | Testimony of Two Men | Flora Eaton | Television miniseries |
| 1981 | Amy | Hazel Johnson | AKAAmy on the Lips |
| 1991 | Murder, She Wrote | Florence | Episode: "Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?" |
| 1996 | Sunset After Dark | ||
| 1998 | Creaturealm: From the Dead | Herself | Segment:Hollywood Mortuary |
| 2000 | Child Stars: Their Story | Herself | AKAChild Stars |
| 2002 | Dead Season | Friendly Looking Lady | |
| 2004 | The Mystery of Natalie Wood | Herself | |
| 2005 | Boxes | Herself | Short film |
| 2006 | Store | Herself | |
| 2009 | Dead in Love | Cris | |
| 2009–2011 | Project Lodestar Sagas | Livia Wells | |
| 2010 | Frankenstein Rising | ||
| 2010 | Elf Sparkle and the Special Red Dress | Mrs. Claus (voice) | |
| 2017 | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | Ms. Stevenson | |
| 2017 | Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! | Bridgette's Grandmother | |
| 2018 | Prepper's Grove | Gigi | |
| 2018 | This Is Our Christmas | Mrs. Foxworth | |
| 2018 | Impact Event | Amanda |
| Year | Program | Episode | Airdate | Writer (original story) | Character Role | Notes | mp3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1943[21] | The Screen Guild Theater[21] | "Journey for Margaret"[21][22] | 5 April 1943[21] | William Lindsay White | Margaret Davis (girl) | The Lady Esther Presents The Screen Guild Players.[21] Related movie:Journey for Margaret. | mp3Archived August 3, 2020, at theWayback Machine |
| 1947[23] | Philco Radio Time[23] (withBing Crosby)[23] | 28 May 1947[23] | self (as guest)[23] | mp3Archived August 23, 2016, at theWayback Machine | |||
| 1948 | Lux Radio Theatre | "Bad Bascomb" | 1 March 1948 | Emmy (girl) | Western radio drama involving aMormonemigrantwagon train. Related movie:Bad Bascomb. | mp3 | |
| 1948[23] | Philco Radio Time[23][24] (with Bing Crosby)[23] | "St. Patrick's Day Program"[22] | 17 March 1948[23][24] | self (as guest)[23][24] | Saint Patrick's Day special. | mp3Archived August 3, 2020, at theWayback Machine | |
| 1948[25][26] | Suspense[25][26][27] | "The Screaming Woman"[25][26][27] | 25 November 1948[25][26] | Ray Bradbury[26][27] | Margaret Leary (girl) | Thanksgiving themedradio drama. Agnes Moorehead[25] as the screaming woman.[26] Considered one of the best episodes ofSuspense andold-time radio overall.[26] | mp3 |
| 1949 | The MGM Theater of the Air | "The Youngest Profession" | 25 November 1949 | Ira Marion (adaption to radio) | Joan Lyons | Classical tale of the teenagers, the autograph hounds, who also get their names. | |
| 1950 | Lux Radio Theatre | "Little Women" | 13 March 1950 | Beth March | The familiar story about four sisters growing up during the Civil War. | ||
| 1950 | The Big Show (NBC Radio) | 31 December 1950 | self (as guest) | Performs scene fromRomeo and Juliet withJose Ferrer |
For a time O'Brien was voted by exhibitors as among the most popular stars in the country.
… actor Margaret O'Brien in 1937 (age 84)…
...was married today to Harold Robert Allen Jr. ... acommercial art student...(subscription required)
Allen divorced her in 1968, saying that she preferred her career to...
On June 6, 1974, O'Brien married Scandinavian steel executive Roy Thorvald Thorsen.... In 1976, Margaret announced that she was expecting her first child, a daughter that she named Mara Tolene.
Five-month-old Mara Tolene Thorsen is held by her mother, one-time child actress Margaret O'Brien, after Mara's christening...(subscription required)
