Angela Maxine O'Brien (born January 15, 1937), 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.
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!, an MGM short film for the War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry, with James Cagney and Ann Sothern (playing her parents), 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. 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.
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."
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", and was a mystery guest on the TV panel show What's My Line? 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."
On November 20, 1950, O'Brien co-starred with Cecil Parker in "The Canterville Ghost", on Robert Montgomery Presents on TV. 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. 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
thumb|alt=An image of Margaret O'Brien in Eiga no Tomo (November 1952)|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. After three days, the maid failed to return to work, prompting O'Brien's mother to discharge her, requesting that the awards be returned. Not long after, O'Brien's mother, who had been sick with a heart condition, suffered a relapse and died. 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.</blockquote>
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. 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. 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. She was married to steel-industry executive Roy Thorvald Thorsen from June 6, 1974 until his death in 2018. Their daughter, Mara Tolene Thorsen, was born in 1977.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Film
! scope="col" | Role
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Other notes
|-
|1941
|Babes on Broadway
|Maxine, Little Girl at Audition
|Uncredited
|-
|1942
|Journey for Margaret
|Margaret White
|
|-
|rowspan= 5|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
|
|-
|rowspan= 4|1944
|Jane Eyre
|Adèle Varens
|
|-
|
|Lady Jessica de Canterville
|
|-
|Meet Me in St. Louis
|
|Academy Juvenile Award
|-
|Music for Millions
|Mike
|
|-
|1945
|Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
|Selma Jacobson
|
|-
|rowspan= 2|1946
|Bad Bascomb
|Emmy
|
|-
|Three Wise Fools
|Sheila O'Monahan
|
|-
|1947
|
|
|
|-
|rowspan= 2|1948
|Big City
|Midge
|
|-
|Tenth Avenue Angel
|Flavia Mills
|
|-
|rowspan= 2|1949
|Little Women
|Beth March
|
|-
|
|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
|-
| rowspan="3" |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
|
|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
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Program !! Episode !! Airdate !! Writer (original story) !! Character Role !! Notes !! mp3
|-
| 1943 || The Screen Guild Theater || 5 April 1943|| Philco Radio Time (with Bing Crosby)
|| Suspense || "The Screaming Woman"
|-
|rowspan=2| <br>1960<br><br> || rowspan=2| Hollywood Walk of Fame || Star of Motion Pictures – 6606 Hollywood Blvd. || || rowspan=2|
- 1947: 19th
References
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
- 2018 interview in Brattleboro Reformer