Margaret O'Brien

Birthday: 15 January 1937, San Diego, California, USA

Birth Name: Angela Maxine O'Brien

Born Angela Maxine O'Brien on January 15, 1937 in San Diego, California. Her film debut was one-minute shot in MGM's Babes on Broadway (1941). Her big moment came when she was cast in Journey for Margaret (1942). This film shot her into instant stardom and also resulted in Angela changing her name to Margaret. Throughout the 1940s Margaret was a major child star. Her unforgettable performance as "Tootie" in Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) won her an Academy Award as "Outstanding Child Actress" of her day. She gave brilliant performances in such films as The Canterville Ghost (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), The Secret Garden (1949) and Little Women (1949). By the early 1950s Margaret had made a mint for MGM and earned a personal fortune. Then she brilliantly graduated into adolescent roles and she never retired from the screen. She also remained active on TV and on the dinner-theater circuit. She frequently is appearing at prestigious events as Celebrity Host or Guest Star and popular Public Speaker. Show less «

[on Wallace Beery, with whom she worked in Bad Bascomb (1946)] Wallace Beery couldn't stand me and I...Show more »

[on Wallace Beery, with whom she worked in Bad Bascomb (1946)] Wallace Beery couldn't stand me and I hated him! He was a mean old man, not nice at all. We shot on location, so the studio would have a truck come around with those boxed lunches. He would steal my lunch. He was that awful. My mother would have to go and get it away from him; if she didn't I would have to go hungry! The studio often paired him with Marjorie Main in an effort to recapture the chemistry of Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler in the olden days. Now I do not know what Beery and Dressler thought about each other, but I do know he didn't like Marjorie Main, and the feeling was mutual! Show less «

[on Marjorie Main, with whom she worked on Bad Bascomb (1946)] Marjorie Main looked like she hadn't ...Show more »

[on Marjorie Main, with whom she worked on Bad Bascomb (1946)] Marjorie Main looked like she hadn't taken a bath in six months. Yet, she was a neat-freak. She'd go around looking for dust. Picking it up or wiping it off, whatever. She was also crazy as a loon. She had once been married but her husband was long dead. Yet she still talked to him--or to his ghost, just like he was there, which he wasn't. She had a place for him at lunch and babbled on to this corpse--it was bizarre. How she ever kept from being taken to the crazy house I will never know! A dozen years or so later I did a Wagon Train (1957) and Marjorie Main was on that also. She hadn't changed a bit, except she looked even older than she did in "Bad Bascomb". Show less «

[on Dan Duryea, with whom she worked on an episode of Wagon Train (1957)] Dan thought he was this gr...Show more »

[on Dan Duryea, with whom she worked on an episode of Wagon Train (1957)] Dan thought he was this great ladies' man, chasing everything in skirts. Well, not everything--he left Marjorie Main. alone Show less «

[at age six] When I cry, do you want the tears to run all the way or shall I stop halfway down?

I met Shirley Temple on Valentine's Day in 1945. To this day, I've never forgotten it. I was in red,...Show more »

I met Shirley Temple on Valentine's Day in 1945. To this day, I've never forgotten it. I was in red, she was in black, and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner together. We didn't immediately become best friends, but every winter my husband and I would send a Christmas card to Shirley and she and her family would send one back. So we kept in touch that way. It helped that we both had wonderful parents who saw that we stayed on the right path. My husband always had a crush on Shirley, but he ended up with me instead. Sometimes people put a stamp on the world, and Shirley certainly did. Show less «

Margaret O'Brien

Margaret O'Brien's FILMOGRAPHY

Margaret O'Brien'S roles

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