Margaret O'Brien
Acting • Born 1937-01-15
Biography
Margaret O'Brien (born January 15, 1937) is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history. In her later career, she appeared on stage and in supporting film roles. She was born Angela Maxine O'Brien; (she later changed her name to Margaret following the success of the film Journey for Margaret, in which she played the title role). Her father Lawrence O'Brien, a circus performer, died before she was born.[1]; 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 as the "outstanding child actress of 1944." Her other successes included The Canterville Ghost (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (1949), 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. Margaret later shed her child star image in 1958 by appearing on the cover of Life Magazine with the caption "The Girl's Grown", and was a mystery guest on the TV panel show What's My Line?. O'Brien's acting roles as an adult have been few and far between, mostly in small independent films. However, she does do occasional interviews, mostly for the Turner Classic Movies cable network. She played the role of Betsy Stauffer, a small town nurse, in "The Incident of the Town in Terror" on television's Rawhide. Another rare television outing was as a guest star on the popular Marcus Welby, M.D. in the early 1970s, reuniting Margaret with her Journey For Margaret and The Canterville Ghost co-star Robert Young. Description above from the Wikipedia article Margaret O'Brien, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography
97 credits
Meet Me in St. Louis
Movie • 1944
'Tootie' Smith
This Is Our Christmas
Movie • 2018
Mrs. Foxworth
Jane Eyre
Movie • 1943
Adele Varens
Heller in Pink Tights
Movie • 1960
Della Southby
Little Women
Movie • 1949
Beth
The Secret Garden
Movie • 1949
Mary Lennox
Madame Curie
Movie • 1943
Irene Curie - Age 5
Thousands Cheer
Movie • 1943
Customer in Red Skelton Skit
Journey for Margaret
Movie • 1942
Margaret
The Craven Cove Murders
Movie • 2002
Fan
The Canterville Ghost
Movie • 1944
Lady Jessica de Canterville
Showbiz Goes to War
Movie • 1982
(archive footage)
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
Movie • 1943
Margaret
The Unfinished Dance
Movie • 1947
'Meg' Merlin
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
Movie • 1945
Selma Jacobson
Tenth Avenue Angel
Movie • 1948
Flavia Mills
The Story of Lassie
Movie • 1994
Self
Lost Angel
Movie • 1943
Alpha
Her First Romance
Movie • 1951
Betty Foster
Glory
Movie • 1956
Clarabel Tilbee
Bad Bascomb
Movie • 1946
Emmy
Music for Millions
Movie • 1944
Mike
You, John Jones!
Movie • 1943
Daughter
Amy
Movie • 1981
Hazel Johnson
Three Wise Fools
Movie • 1946
Sheila O'Monahan
Big City
Movie • 1948
Midge
Creaturealm: From the Dead
Movie • 1998
Herself
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star
Movie • 2002
Self - Actress
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
Movie • 1973
Self (archive footage)
The Eyes of Two People
Movie • 1952
Catherine McDermott
Meet Me in St. Louis: The Making of an American Classic
Movie • 1994
Self
Hollywood Mortuary
Movie • 1998
Herself
The Pledge of Allegiance
Movie • 1971
Narrator
That's Entertainment!
Movie • 1974
(archive footage)
Love Is in Bel Air
Movie
Vivienne
A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas!
Movie • 2011
Self - Interviewee
Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story
Movie • 2018
Self
Sunset After Dark
Movie • 1996
Betty Corman
Anabelle Lee
Movie • 1971
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Movie • 2017
Ms. Stevenson
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's
Movie • 1998
Self
Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill!
Movie • 2017
Bridgette's Grandmother
Frankenstein Rising
Movie • 2010
Death in Space
Movie • 1974
Pam Rhodes
Twenty Years After
Movie • 1944
(archive footage)
Babes on Broadway
Movie • 1941
Maxine (uncredited)
Impact Event
Movie • 2018
Amanda
Split Second to an Epitaph
Movie • 1968
Louise Prescott
Hollywood’s Children
Movie • 1982
Self (archive footage)
Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity
Movie • 2015
Self
Prepper's Grove
Movie • 2018
Gigi
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs: America's Greatest Music in the Movies
Movie • 2004
Self
When We Were Young: Growing Up on the Silver Screen
Movie • 1989
Self
Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas the Horse
Movie • 2009
Miss Coyote (voice)
The Mystery of Thirteen
Movie • 1957
Annie Brookes
Tales from the Darkside
TV • 1984
Mildred Webster
E! True Hollywood Story
TV • 1996
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Virginia Trent
Studio One
TV • 1948
Combat!
TV • 1962
Marianne Fraisnet
The Ed Sullivan Show
TV • 1948
Self
General Electric Theater
TV • 1953
Sarah Trask
Hollywood Preview
TV • 1955
Self
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Betsy Stauffer
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Margaret
The Aquanauts
TV • 1960
Ellen Marstand
The New Lassie
TV • 1989
Climax!
TV • 1954
Kathy Fathian
Adventures in Paradise
TV • 1959
Phyllis Willoughby
Matinee Theater
TV • 1955
Robert Montgomery Presents
TV • 1950
Ginny
The Steve Allen Show
TV • 1956
Self - Singer
Dr. Kildare
TV • 1961
Nurse Lori Palmer
The Oscars
TV • 1953
Self
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
TV • 1959
Jean
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
TV • 1962
Self
Adam-12
TV • 1968
Mrs. Pendleton
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Laura
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Elaine
Studio One
TV • 1948
Julie Denton
Studio One
TV • 1948
Jenny Walker
Ironside
TV • 1967
Louise Prescott
Climax!
TV • 1954
Chip
Climax!
TV • 1954
Angie Hawley
Kraft Television Theatre
TV • 1947
What's My Line?
TV • 1950
Self
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
TV • 1967
Self
Murder, She Wrote
TV • 1984
Jane
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
TV • 1963
Anne Lipscott
Wagon Train
TV • 1957
Julie Revere
Hotel
TV • 1982
Martha Connelly
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Self - Intermission Guest
Marcus Welby, M.D.
TV • 1969
Neva Phillips
Love, American Style
TV • 1969
Testimony of Two Men
TV • 1977
Flora Bumpstead Eaton
MGM Parade
TV • 1955
Self