Margaret O'Brien

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Angela Maxine O'Brien (born January 15, 1937),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> known professionally as Margaret O'Brien, is an American actress. Beginning a career in feature films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at age four, O'Brien became a child star and received a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944 for her role in Meet Me in St. Louis. In her later career, she appeared on television, stage, and in supporting film roles.

O'Brien has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--one for film, and the other for television.<ref name="Walk of Fame"/>

Early life and career

O'Brien's mother, Gladys Flores (1895–1958), was a flamenco 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.<ref>Life, February 26, 1945</ref>

Film

O'Brien made her first film appearance in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 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 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 of Thousands Cheer. Also in 1943, at the age of seven, Margaret co-starred in "You, John Jones," a "War Bond/Effort," short film, with James Cagney and Ann Sothern (playing their daughter), in which she dramatically recited President Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address." She played Adèle, a young French girl, and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French accent in Jane Eyre (1943).

Arguably her most memorable role was in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland Template:Citation needed . For her performance in this film as the younger sister "Tootie", she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar at the 17th Academy Awards in 1944.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Margaret and June 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

O'Brien‘s other successes included The Canterville Ghost (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), Bad Bascomb (1946) with Wallace Beery, and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (1949). She played Beth in the 1949 MGM release of Little 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 of Life magazine with the caption "How the Girl's Grown",<ref>Life, May 19, 1958.</ref> and was a mystery guest on the TV panel show What's My Line?.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> 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 the Turner Classic Movies cable network.

Television

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."<ref name="bdc">Template:Cite news</ref>

On November 20, 1950, O'Brien co-starred with Cecil Parker in "The Canterville Ghost", on Robert Montgomery Presents on TV.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She appeared as the mystery guest on What's My Line in 1957. On December 22, 1957, O'Brien starred in "The Young Years" on General Electric Theater.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She played the role of Betsy Stauffer, a small-town nurse, in "The Incident of the Town in Terror" on television's Rawhide. She appeared in "The Sacramento Story" on Wagon Train in 1958, playing Julie Revere, courted by Robert Horton's Flint McCullough. She made a guest appearance on a 1963 episode of Perry 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 drama Combat!. Also, in a 1968 two-part episode of Ironside ("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 star Raymond Burr's Ironside. Another rare television outing was as a guest star on the popular Marcus Welby, M.D. in the early 1970s, reuniting O'Brien with her Journey for Margaret and The Canterville Ghost co-star Robert Young.

In 1991, O'Brien appeared in Murder, She Wrote, season 7, episode "Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?", reuniting O'Brien with her Tenth Avenue Angel co-star Angela Lansbury.

Academy Award

O'Brien in Eiga no Tomo ("Film Friend" magazine; November 1952)

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's Juvenile Oscar and two other awards home with her to polish, as she had done in the past.<ref name="LA Times 1">Template:Cite news</ref> After three days, the maid failed to return to work, prompting O'Brien's mother to discharge her, requesting that the awards be returned.<ref name="Hollywoodland 1">Template:Cite web</ref> Not long after, O'Brien's mother, who had been sick with a heart condition, suffered a relapse and died.<ref name="LA Times 1"/> 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.<ref name="LA Times 1"/><ref name="Hollywoodland 1"/>

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.<ref name="LA Times 1"/><ref name="Hollywoodland 1"/> 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 the Academy, was alerted that a miniature statuette bearing O'Brien's name had surfaced in a catalogue for an upcoming memorabilia auction.<ref name="LA Times 1"/> 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.<ref name="LA Times 1"/><ref name="Hollywoodland 1"/>

O'Brien in 2013

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.<ref name="SF Gate">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="LA Times 1"/> 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.<ref name="LA Times 1"/> 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.<ref name="LA Times 1"/><ref name="SF Gate"/> 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.<ref name="Hollywoodland 2">Template:Cite web</ref>

Additional honors

In February 1960, O'Brien was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6606 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 1634 Vine St.<ref name="Walk of Fame">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1990, O'Brien was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award recognizing her outstanding achievements within the film industry as a child actress.<ref name="Young Artist Awards 11">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2006, she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University.

Personal life

O'Brien was married to Harold Allen Jr. from August 9, 1959 until their divorce in 1968.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Subscription required</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She was married to steel-industry executive Roy Thorvald Thorsen<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> from June 6, 1974 until his death in 2018.<ref name=Ellenberger>Template:Cite book</ref> Their daughter, Mara Tolene Thorsen, was born in 1977.<ref name=Ellenberger /><ref>Photo caption in Template:Cite newsTemplate:Subscription required</ref>

Filmography

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
	Template:Sort	Lady Jessica de Canterville
	Meet Me in St. Louis	Template:Sort	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	Template:Sort	Template:Sort
1948	Big City	Midge
	Tenth Avenue Angel	Flavia Mills
1949	Little Women	Beth March
	Template:Sort	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		AKA Diabolic Wedding
	That's Entertainment!	Herself and archive footage
1977	Testimony of Two Men	Flora Eaton	Television miniseries
1981	Amy	Hazel Johnson	AKA Amy 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	AKA Child Stars
2002	Dead Season	Friendly Looking Lady
2004	Template:Sort	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

Selected radio credits

Year	Program	Episode	Airdate	Writer (original story)	Character Role	Notes	mp3
1943<ref name=dthg>Template:Cite web</ref>	The Screen Guild Theater<ref name=dthg/>	"Journey for Margaret"<ref name=dthg/><ref name="Those Were the Days">Template:Cite journal</ref>	5 April 1943<ref name=dthg/>	William Lindsay White	Margaret Davis (girl)	The Lady Esther Presents The Screen Guild Players.<ref name=dthg/> Related movie: Journey for Margaret.	mp3 Template:Webarchive
1947<ref name=dph>Template:Cite web</ref>	Philco Radio Time<ref name=dph/> (with Bing Crosby)<ref name=dph/>		28 May 1947<ref name=dph/>		self (as guest)<ref name=dph/>		mp3 Template:Webarchive
1948	Lux Radio Theatre	"Bad Bascomb"	1 March 1948		Emmy (girl)	Western radio drama involving a Mormon emigrant wagon train. Related movie: Bad Bascomb.	mp3
1948<ref name=dph/>	Philco Radio Time<ref name=dph/><ref name=slph>Template:Cite web</ref> (with Bing Crosby)<ref name=dph/>	"St. Patrick's Day Program"<ref name="Those Were the Days"/>	17 March 1948<ref name=dph/><ref name=slph/>		self (as guest)<ref name=dph/><ref name=slph/>	Saint Patrick's Day special.	mp3 Template:Webarchive
1948<ref name=sus>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=otrrsus>Old Time Radio Review: Suspense - episode review of "The Screaming Woman"</ref>	Suspense<ref name=sus/><ref name=otrrsus/><ref name=otrpsus>OTR Plot Spot: Suspense - plot summaries and reviews.</ref>	"The Screaming Woman"<ref name=sus/><ref name=otrrsus/><ref name=otrpsus/>	25 November 1948<ref name=sus/><ref name=otrrsus/>	Ray Bradbury<ref name=otrrsus/><ref name=otrpsus/>	Margaret Leary (girl)	Thanksgiving themed radio drama. Agnes Moorehead<ref name=sus/> as the screaming woman.<ref name=otrrsus/> Considered one of the best episodes of Suspense and old-time radio overall.<ref name=otrrsus/>	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 from Romeo and Juliet with Jose Ferrer

Accolades

Year	Award	Honor	Result	Ref.
1945	Academy Award	Juvenile Award for Outstanding Child Actress of 1944	Template:Won	<ref name="Oscars.org 4">Template:Cite web</ref>
1960	Hollywood Walk of Fame	Star of Motion Pictures – 6606 Hollywood Blvd.	Template:Won	<ref name="Walk of Fame"/>
		Star of Television – 1634 Vine Street.	Template:Won
1990	Young Artist Award	Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award	Template:Won	<ref name="Young Artist Awards 11"/>

Box office ranking

For a time O'Brien was voted by exhibitors as among the most popular stars in the country.

• 1945: 9th
• 1946: 8th<ref>"Crosby Again Leads in Film Box Offices". The New York Times, 27 Dec 1946: 13.</ref>
• 1947: 19th<ref>"Bing's Lucky Number: Pa Crosby Dons 4th B.O. Crown" By Richard L. Coe. The Washington Post (1923–1954) [Washington, D.C.] 3 Jan 1948: 12.</ref>

Bibliography

• Best, Marc. Those Endearing Young Charms: Child Performers of the Screen (South Brunswick and New York: Barnes & Co., 1971), p. 203–208.
• Dye, David. Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914–1985. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1988, pp. 170–171.

External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Template:Rotten-tomatoes-person
• 2018 interview in Brattleboro Reformer