Oscar Profile #134: Margaret O’Brien

Born January 15, 1937, Angela Maxine O’Brien’s father, circus performer Lawrence O’Brien, died before she was born. Her mother, Gladys Flores, was a well-known flamenco dancer. The precocious child began her acting debut at the age of four with an un-credited role in 1941’s Babes on Broadway. She received her first billing in the title role of the World War II refugee in 1942’s Journey for Margaret for which her first name was changed to Margaret.

An overnight sensation, little Margaret would remain the pre-eminent child actress of the 1940s. She was so popular by late 1943 after just a handful of films that she would make an appearance as a guest star in MGM’s blockbuster musical of that year, As Thousands Cheer. The following year, she was featured in four of her best remembered roles as the little French girl in Jane Eyre; the little lady of the manor in The Canterville Ghost; “Tootie”, arguably her most famous role, in Meet Me in St. Louis and “Mike” in Music for Millions. It’s no wonder that she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar as “Outstanding Child Actress of 1944”, only the fifth such honoree in Oscar history and the first in five years. She was preceded by Shirley Temple (1934), Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney (1938) and her Meet Me in St. Louis co-star, Judy Garland (1939)

She continued to excel in roles ranging from Edward G. Robinson’s Norwegian-American daughter in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes to the little heiress in Three Wise Fools to the tiny ballerina in The Unfinished Dance to the self-confident tenement child in Tenth Avenue Angel. She reached another peak with two oft-filmed literary masterpieces in 1949: Little Women and The Secret Garden. After that, though, her popularity waned. Her 1951 film, Her First Romance flopped. Mostly seen since in guest star appearances on TV, in minor roles on the large screen and latterly as a popular interviewee on her childhood career, she had her last starring role on screen as a racehorse trainer in 1956’s Glory opposite Walter Brennan.

In 1954, a family maid stole the then seventeen year-old’s Oscar and disappeared, which may or may not have brought on her mother’s fatal heart attack. Although the Academy replaced the stolen Oscar with a new one, O’Brien never gave up hope that someday the original would be returned to her. One day in 1995, a pair of memorabilia collectors spotted the stolen Oscar at a flea market and purchased it for $500, intending to re-sell it at a profit. When they learned of its history, however, they returned it to a very grateful O’Brien.

Though she hasn’t been a star for many years, the twice married Margaret O’Brien, whose only child was born in 1977, is still making movies at the age of 76. She will next be seen as a character named Mrs. Danvers in a horror film called Morella slated for release in 2015.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

JOURNEY FOR MARGARET (1942), directed by W.S. Van Dyke

Five year-old O’Brien cried her heart out and became an instant star in her first billed role as the little orphan childless couple Robert Young and Laraine Day want to adopt along with her younger brother William Severn and another little boy. Fay Bainter co-stars as the woman who runs the shelter where the children are temporarily housed.

O’Brien did not need the coaxing other child actors required to get the tear ducts flowing. Not only could she cry on cue, by the time she was six she could ask her director “When I cry, do you want the tears to run all the way or shall I stop halfway down?

THE CANTERVILLE GHOST (1944), directed by Jules Dassin

No one could steal a film from Charles Laughton, not even seven year-old O’Brien, and she doesn’t try. She doesn’t need to. They are both given ample room to do their thing, Laughton as the family ghost walled away for centuries, and O’Brien as the latest mistress of the castle. Robert Young plays straight man to them both as an American soldier stationed near the castle who happens to be a descendant of the Cantervilles. His World War II bravery will set the cowardly ghost free.

This was the first of ten film versions thus far of Oscar Wilde’s story, seven of which are TV adaptations and two, including one in post-production, of which are animated features.

MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944), directed by Vincente Minnelli

One of the most beloved films of all time, the Ralph Blane-HughMartin musical is based on a series of semi-autobiographical vignettes from author Sally Benson that first appeared in magazine articles in 1930. O’Brien received second billing to star Judy Garland and steals the film from just about everyone except Garland. She gets to sing “Mother, I Was Drunk Last Night” a cappella and “Under the Bamboo Tree” holding her own in duet with Garland. The piece-de-resistance, however, is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” sung by Garland to a crying O’Brien.

The musical was re-done for television twice and was even mounted as a Broadway musical in 1989-1990 season but nothing compares to the original.

LITTLE WOMEN (1949), directed by Mervyn LeRoy

There have been so many adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved Civil War novel that it’s hard to keep track, but the best known versions are the three big screen film versions made in 1933, 1949 and 1994 and the 1978 TV mini-series. Most people cite either the 1933 version with Katharine Hepburn as Jo or the 1994 version with Winona Ryder as Jo as their favorite. Everyone agrees, however, that nobody played Beth as well as O’Brien did here, a role she reprised in a now forgotten 1958 TV production.

O’Brien’s co-stars include several she’d worked with before – June Allyson, her sister in Music for Millions as Jo; Mary Astor, her mother in Meet Me in St. Louis as well as her mother here and Harry Davenport, her grandfather in Meet Me in St. Louis the doctor here in one of his last roles – as well as Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Lawford and Lucile Wtson.

THE SECRET GARDEN (1949), Directed by Fred M. Wilcox

O’Brien’s last great film and last great performance, to date anyway, was as orphaned Mary Lennox in one of the many filmed versions of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved novel, this one filmed on the centenary of her birth. The author had died in 1924 at the age of 74.

O’Brien is supported by a cast of great actors including Herbert Marshall as her mysterious uncle; Dean Stockwell as her afflicted cousin; Gladys Cooper as the stern housekeeper; Elsa Lanchester as the maid and Brian Roper as the maid’s mischievous little brother. They are all superb, especially Stockwell and Cooper, but the film belongs to O’Brien who is in almost every scene.