Actors - Margaret O'Brien

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	Actors - Margaret O'Brien

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) and Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), 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.

Fans who remembered little Margaret were astonished to see her on the cover of Life Magazine in the 1958, looking quite voluptuous. "How The Girl Has Grown" was the caption.

O'Brien's acting roles as an adult have been 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 '70s, reuniting Margaret with her Journey for Margaret co-star Robert Young.

She has been married twice, to Harold Allen, Jr. (from 1959 to 1968), and later to Roy Thorsen (that marriage produced her only child, Mara Tolene Thorsen, born in 1977. Margaret is that rare child star who didn't 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.

Filmography

Mumsie (2004)
Dead Season (2002)

Sunset After Dark (1996)

Amy 1981

Diabolic Wedding (1974)

Annabelle Lee (1968)

Heller in Pink Tights 1960

Glory 1956

Futari no hitomi (1952)

Her First Romance 1951

Little Women
1949

The Secret Garden 1949

Tenth Avenue Angel 1948

Big City 1948

The Unfinished Dance 1947

Bad Bascomb 1946

Three Wise Fools 1946

Our Vines Have Tender Grapes 1945

Meet Me in St. Louis
1944

Jane Eyre
1944

The Canterville Ghost 1944

Music for Millions 1944

Lost Angel 1944

Thousands Cheer
(1943)

Madame Curie (1943)
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943)
You, John Jones (1943)
Journey for Margaret 1942
Babes on Broadway
1941

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Margaret O'Brien ]

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Actors - Margaret O'Brien

Filmography

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