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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
January 15, 1937
Place of Birth
San Diego, California, USA
Also Known As
- Angela Maxine O'Brien
- Maxine O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien
4.3 Popularity
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.
Known For
0.0
Self
Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story
2023
2.0
Mrs. Foxworth
This Is Our Christmas
2018
🎬
0.0
Gigi
Prepper's Grove
2018
7.0
Amanda
Impact Event
2018
4.8
Bridgette's Grandmother
Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill!
2017
4.2
Ms. Stevenson
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2017
0.0
Self
Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity
2015
8.1
Self - Interviewee
A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas!
2011
9.5
Frankenstein Rising
2010
0.0
Miss Coyote (voice)
Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas the Horse
2009
Credits
Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story
as Self
2023
0.0
This Is Our Christmas
as Mrs. Foxworth
2018
2.0
🎬
Prepper's Grove
as Gigi
2018
0.0
Impact Event
as Amanda
2018
7.0
Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill!
as Bridgette's Grandmother
2017
4.8
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
as Ms. Stevenson
2017
4.2
Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity
as Self
2015
0.0
A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas!
as Self - Interviewee
2011
8.1
Frankenstein Rising
2010
9.5
Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas the Horse
as Miss Coyote (voice)
2009
0.0
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs: America's Greatest Music in the Movies
as Self
2004
8.0
The Craven Cove Murders
as Fan
2002
6.0
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star
as Self - Actress
2002
6.7
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's
as Self
1998
7.3
Creaturealm: From the Dead
as Herself
1998
1.0
Hollywood Mortuary
as Herself
1998
1.0
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
8.1
🎬
Sunset After Dark
as Betty Corman
1996
2.0
The Story of Lassie
as Self
1994
0.0
Meet Me in St. Louis: The Making of an American Classic
as Self
1994
0.0
When We Were Young: Growing Up on the Silver Screen
as Self
1989
0.0
The New Lassie
1989
6.7
Murder, She Wrote
as Jane
1984
7.5
Tales from the Darkside
as Mildred Webster
1984
7.2
Showbiz Goes to War
as (archive footage)
1982
10.0
Hotel
as Martha Connelly
1982
6.8
Hollywood’s Children
as Self (archive footage)
1982
0.0
Amy
as Hazel Johnson
1981
7.1
Testimony of Two Men
as Flora Bumpstead Eaton
1977
5.0
That's Entertainment!
as (archive footage)
1974
7.4
Death in Space
as Pam Rhodes
1974
0.0
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
as Self (archive footage)
1973
0.0
Anabelle Lee
1971
0.0
The Pledge of Allegiance
as Narrator
1971
0.0
Love, American Style
1969
6.1
Marcus Welby, M.D.
as Neva Phillips
1969
6.5
Split Second to an Epitaph
as Louise Prescott
1968
0.0
Adam-12
as Mrs. Pendleton
1968
7.0
Ironside
as Louise Prescott
1967
6.8
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
as Self
1967
6.9
🎬
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
as Anne Lipscott
1963
5.7
Combat!
as Marianne Fraisnet
1962
7.7
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
1962
7.5
The Mike Douglas Show
as Self
1961
5.4
Dr. Kildare
as Nurse Lori Palmer
1961
5.5
The Aquanauts
as Ellen Marstand
1960
5.5
Heller in Pink Tights
as Della Southby
1960
5.7
Adventures in Paradise
as Phyllis Willoughby
1959
5.7
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
as Jean
1959
6.3
Rawhide
as Betsy Stauffer
1959
7.2
Perry Mason
as Virginia Trent
1957
7.7
Wagon Train
as Julie Revere
1957
6.6
The Steve Allen Show
as Self - Singer
1956
5.6
Glory
as Clarabel Tilbee
1956
5.0
Matinee Theater
1955
5.0
🎬
Hollywood Preview
as Self
1955
6.0
Climax!
as Kathy Fathian
1954
3.3
Climax!
as Chip
1954
3.3
Climax!
as Angie Hawley
1954
3.3
The Oscars
as Self
1953
7.0
General Electric Theater
as Sarah Trask
1953
6.4
The Eyes of Two People
as Catherine McDermott
1952
0.0
Her First Romance
as Betty Foster
1951
3.0
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Margaret
1950
6.3
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Laura
1950
6.3
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Elaine
1950
6.3
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Self - Intermission Guest
1950
6.3
What's My Line?
as Self
1950
6.9
Robert Montgomery Presents
as Ginny
1950
5.6
The Secret Garden
as Mary Lennox
1949
7.1
Little Women
as Beth
1949
7.4
Studio One
1948
5.0
Studio One
as Julie Denton
1948
5.0
Studio One
as Jenny Walker
1948
5.0
The Ed Sullivan Show
as Self
1948
6.8
Big City
as Midge
1948
7.2
Tenth Avenue Angel
as Flavia Mills
1948
6.0
The Unfinished Dance
as 'Meg' Merlin
1947
6.0
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
7.5
Three Wise Fools
as Sheila O'Monahan
1946
5.0
Bad Bascomb
as Emmy
1946
6.2
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
as Selma Jacobson
1945
6.9
Music for Millions
as Mike
1944
6.0
Meet Me in St. Louis
as 'Tootie' Smith
1944
7.0
The Canterville Ghost
as Lady Jessica de Canterville
1944
6.7
Twenty Years After
as (archive footage)
1944
6.0
Jane Eyre
as Adele Varens
1943
6.9
Lost Angel
as Alpha
1943
7.5
Madame Curie
as Irene Curie - Age 5
1943
7.2
Thousands Cheer
as Customer in Red Skelton Skit
1943
6.4
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
as Margaret
1943
5.5
You, John Jones!
as Daughter
1943
6.0
Journey for Margaret
as Margaret
1942
6.3
Babes on Broadway
as Maxine (uncredited)
1941
6.5
Love Is in Bel Air
as Vivienne
N/A
0.0