Margaret O'Brien facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Margaret O'Brien
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O'Brien in 2002
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| Born |
Angela Maxine O'Brien
January 15, 1937 San Diego, California, U.S.
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| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1941–present |
| Known for | Meet Me in St. Louis |
| Spouse(s) |
Harold Allen Jr.
(m. 1959; div. 1968)Roy Thorvald Thorsen
(m. 1974; |
| Children | 1 |
Margaret O'Brien (born January 15, 1937) is an American actress. She started her acting career in movies when she was just four years old. Margaret quickly became a famous child star.
She even won a special Oscar in 1944 for being the best child actress of that year. Later in her career, she acted in TV shows, plays, and other movies.
Contents
Early Life and Movie Career
Margaret O'Brien's mother, Gladys Flores, was a talented flamenco dancer. Margaret has both Irish and Spanish family roots. She was raised in the Catholic faith.
Becoming a Child Star in Movies
Margaret first appeared in a movie called Babes on Broadway in 1941. She was only four years old! The next year, she got a big role in Journey for Margaret (1942).
People were amazed by her acting in this movie because she was so convincing for a five-year-old. By 1943, she was famous enough to appear in the movie Thousands Cheer.
In 1943, when she was seven, Margaret also starred in a short film called "You, John Jones." She acted alongside James Cagney and Ann Sothern, playing their daughter. In the film, she gave a powerful speech of President Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address."
She also played a young French girl named Adèle in Jane Eyre (1943). She spoke and sang all her lines with a French accent.
Her Most Famous Role: Meet Me in St. Louis
One of Margaret's most remembered roles was in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). She starred with Judy Garland. Margaret played the younger sister, "Tootie."
For her amazing performance in this film, she received a special Oscar for child actors in 1944.
Margaret and another child star, June Allyson, were known for their ability to cry on cue in movies. Margaret once said they would compete to see who could cry better!
Margaret also had success in other movies like The Canterville Ghost (1944) and Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945). She also starred in Bad Bascomb (1946) and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (1949).
She played Beth in the 1949 movie Little Women. However, it was hard for her to find many adult roles after being such a famous child star.
As an adult, Margaret appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1958. The headline said, "How the Girl's Grown." She also appeared on the TV show What's My Line? as a mystery guest.
Margaret's acting roles as an adult have been mostly in smaller movies and some TV shows. She also gives interviews, especially for the Turner Classic Movies channel.
Television Appearances
Margaret O'Brien said that television helped her change her public image as she grew up. In 1957, when she was 20, she shared that TV gave her a chance to move past her "awkward age." Movies, she felt, couldn't offer her adult roles easily.
She co-starred in a TV version of "The Canterville Ghost" in 1950. She was also a mystery guest on "What's My Line" in 1957. In the same year, she starred in "The Young Years" on General Electric Theater.
Margaret played a nurse named Betsy Stauffer in an episode of Rawhide. She also appeared in an episode of Wagon Train in 1958. In 1963, she was a guest star on Perry Mason.
She also appeared in the World War II TV drama Combat! in 1967. In 1968, she was in a two-part episode of Ironside. Margaret also reunited with her Journey for Margaret co-star Robert Young on Marcus Welby, M.D. in the early 1970s.
In 1991, Margaret appeared in Murder, She Wrote. This episode brought her back together with her Tenth Avenue Angel co-star Angela Lansbury.
Her Lost and Found Academy Award
Margaret O'Brien kept her awards in a special room when she was young. In 1954, her maid offered to take her special Juvenile Oscar and two other awards home to polish them. The maid had done this before.
However, after three days, the maid did not come back to work. Margaret's mother asked for the awards to be returned. Soon after, Margaret's mother passed away. Margaret, who was 17, forgot about the maid and the Oscar for a while.
Months later, she tried to find the maid but learned she had moved without leaving a new address. Years later, the Academy found out her original Oscar was missing. They quickly gave Margaret a new replacement Oscar.
But Margaret still hoped to find her original award one day. She looked in antique shops and at memorabilia shows for years. Then, in 1995, someone found a small Oscar with Margaret O'Brien's name on it in an auction catalog.
Two collectors, Steve Neimand and Mark Nash, found the Oscar at a flea market in 1995. They bought it for $500. When they learned the award's story, they agreed to return it to Margaret.
On February 7, 1995, almost 50 years after she first received it, and nearly 40 years after it was stolen, the Academy held a special ceremony. They returned the stolen award to Margaret O'Brien.
Margaret told reporters:
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.
Other Special Awards
In February 1960, Margaret O'Brien received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One star is for her work in movies, and the other is for her work in television.
In 1990, the Young Artist Foundation gave her a special "Lifetime Achievement" Award. This award recognized her amazing work as a child actress in the film industry.
In 2006, she received another Lifetime Achievement Award from the SunDeis Film Festival. This festival is held at Brandeis University.
Personal Life
Margaret O'Brien was married to Harold Allen Jr. from 1959 to 1968. She later married Roy Thorvald Thorsen in 1974. They were married until his death in 2018. Their daughter, Mara Tolene Thorsen, was born in 1977.
Images for kids
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O'Brien in 2002
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Margaret O'Brien in Journey for Margaret (1942)
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Orson Welles, Margaret O'Brien and Joan Fontaine in Jane Eyre (1943)
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Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
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O'Brien in Eiga no Tomo ("Film Friend" magazine; November 1952)
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O'Brien in 2013
See also
In Spanish: Margaret O'Brien para niños
