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Acting
May 20, 1923
June 26, 2011
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Edith Fellows was born on May 20, 1923, in Boston, Massachusetts. When she was a year old, she and her father and grandmother moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. As a toddler, Edith was pigeon-toed and had trouble walking, and one doctor suggested that dance lessons might cure this condition. At age four, Edith entered Henderson's School of Dance, where she was spotted by a man claiming to be a talent scout, who told her grandmother that he could get Edith into show business for a fifty-dollar fee. The dance school raised the money, but when Edith and her grandmother arrived in Hollywood, they discovered that the address the man had given them did not exist, and they realized he was a fraud. Stranded in Hollywood with no means to return to North Carolina, Edith's grandmother began doing housework to earn a living. While she worked, she left Edith with a neighbor and her young son. One day Edith was taken along when the neighbor's son had an audition for the film Movie Night (1929), and she ended up getting the part. Although she never become a child star, Edith appeared in many popular films of the 1930s, most notably Pennies from Heaven (1936). She also proved herself to be a very versatile actress, playing roles ranging from a spoiled rich girl, as in Heart of the Rio Grande (1942), to a poor orphan girl, as in Pennies from Heaven. Edith was even given her own series, The Five Little Peppers, while under contract to Columbia, and she made four of the Pepper films (the first was Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1939)) in two years. Between 1929 and 1954, Edith appeared in some fifty films, mostly in juvenile roles due to her short 4' 10" stature. But her career suddenly slowed down in the mid-1950s. Between 1955 and 1980, she appeared in only one film, Lilith (1964), in which she had a bit part. During this time, Edith chose to focus on her family life; she had married producer Freddie Fields in 1946, and their only child, daughter Kathy, was born in 1947. But Edith and Fields divorced in 1955, and the end of her marriage, coupled with other factors, caused Edith to have a nervous breakdown. She recovered, and in 1981, she returned to acting in numerous supporting roles on television. In 1985, fellow former child actor Jackie Cooper announced plans to make a TV movie based on Edith's life, but this project never happened.

Self
1999

Sadie Hubbell
1994

Mrs. Long, Judy's Mother
1987

Mrs. Wilson
1985

Edith Head
1983

Mrs. Sabin
1982

Mrs. Isbecki
1982

Victim's Wife
1982

Self
1982

1981

as Self

as Sadie Hubbell

as Mrs. Long, Judy's Mother

as Mrs. Wilson

as Edith Head

as Mrs. Sabin

as Mrs. Isbecki

as Victim's Wife

as Self


as Self (clip from "Pennies from Heaven")

as Patient (uncredited)

as Ellen

as Judy Drew

as Connie Lane

as Sue Norman

as Self

as Milly Lou

as Linda Strong

as Pat

as Polly Pepper

as Polly Pepper

as Polly Pepper

as Mary O'Malley

as Midge Griner

as Polly Pepper

as Winnie Brady

as Foxine LaRue

as Dodie Martin

as Patsy Smith

as 'Princess' Judy

as Brenda Farnham

as Ellen

as Annabel Barclay

as Jean Marie Meredith / Little Scout

as Sally

as Little Girl in Ice Cream Number (uncredited)

as Australia Wiggs

as Adele Rochester

as Alice (as a child)

as Little Sister

as Felicia - Minister's Daughter (uncredited)

as Rogers' Daughter (uncredited)

as Edith

as Little Girl at Aquarium (uncredited)

as Betty Kelley

as Girl with String in Mouth

as Little Girl with Kite

as Betty Joyce

as Gypsy as a Child (uncredited)

as Schoolgirl (uncredited)

as Orphan (uncredited)
as Orphan girl

as (uncredited)

as Girls Scared of Elephant

as Child at Puppet Show (uncredited)

as Daughter