Favorite Female Child Stars of Classic Hollywood
by gloriafindell | created - 5 months ago | updated - 1 month ago | PublicBefore Television and (almost) in Order
1. Ann Carter
Actress | The Curse of the Cat People
Ann Carter was born on June 16, 1936 in Syracuse, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Curse of the Cat People (1944), Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949) and The North Star (1943). She was married to Crosby Newton. She died on January 27, 2014 in Tacoma, Washington, USA.
"The Curse of the Cat People" is probably what she is best known for, but I like her performance in "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" as much.
2. Margaret O'Brien
Actress | Meet Me in St. Louis
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 ...
Thought she was obnoxiously cute in "Meet Me in St. Louis," but then I watched "Journey for Margaret" and was duly impressed.
3. Shirley Temple
Actress | The Little Colonel
Shirley Temple was easily the most popular and famous child star of all time. She got her start in the movies at the age of three and soon progressed to super stardom. Shirley could do it all: act, sing and dance and all at the age of five! Fans loved her as she was bright, bouncy and cheerful in ...
No explanation needed.
4. Virginia Weidler
Actress | The Philadelphia Story
Delightful child/juvenile actress Virginia Anna Adelaide Weidler (her friends called her "Ginny") had that knowing gleam in her eye that usually spelled trouble in one form or another for anyone nearby. She was born in Eagle Rock, California, in 1927, one of six children. Her mother was former ...
"The Philadelphia Story" Retired at age 16(!).
5. Natalie Wood
Actress | Rebel Without a Cause
Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.
Wood was born July 20, 1938 in ...
Fun Fact: Born same day as Diana Rigg (Emma Peel, "The Avengers").
6. Sharyn Moffett
Actress | Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
A child actress who showed heart-warming potential in the 1940s, child actress Sharyn Moffett (born Patricia Sharyn Moffett) was a cute presence in a number of sentimental tales. Closer to young Margaret O'Brien than Shirley Temple in type and demeanor, Sharyn was born on September 12, 1936 in ...
"The Body Snatcher" Fun Fact: Died too late (Dec. 23) to be included in Turner Classic Movies' "TCM Remembers" segment for 2021, but was included in the reel for 2022.
7. Karolyn Grimes
Actress | It's a Wonderful Life
At age 6, Karolyn Grimes played the role of Zuzu Bailey in the holiday film It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Her childhood film career spanned 16 movies, but she is best remembered for playing the daughter of George and Mary Bailey (James Stewart and Donna Reed). The petals from her rose symbolize the...
Best known for "It's a Wonderful Life," I enjoyed her performance in "The Bishop's Wife."
8. Elizabeth Taylor
Actress | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was considered one of the last, if not the last, major star to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. She was known internationally for her beauty, especially for her violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early in her youth and kept the world hooked ...
Arguably The Most Beautiful Little Girl in the World (see "Jane Eyre").
9. Gigi Perreau
Actress | Shadow on the Wall
A major little talent, this French-American moppet star of the late '40s and early '50s was able to parlay her precocious popularity into a modest young adult career, but then left it for family. She has nevertheless maintained on its fringe for decades.
Gigi Perreau was born on February 6, 1941, in...
Resumed career in 2007 after a 30-year break.
10. Peggy Ann Garner
Actress | A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Actress Peggy Ann Garner was born Feb. 3, 1932, in Canton, Ohio. Her father was an English-born attorney, William H. Garner, who served as a U.S. Army officer during World War II. Virginia, her determined mother, got Peggy into summer stock and modeling before she was six. Estranged from her ...
Probably best known for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," also played young Jane in "Jane Eyre" (1943).
11. Jane Withers
Actress | Giant
During the early times of the Depression when life was more famine than feast, child stars became the blue plate special of the day, served up by Hollywood to help nourish a nation besieged with troubles. Following 20th Century-Fox monumental success with Shirley Temple in the early 1930s, every ...
In "The North Star" with Ann Carter.
12. Darla Hood
Actress | The Bohemian Girl
Darla Hood was born in the small town of Leedey, Oklahoma on November 8, 1931. Hood began her association with "Our Gang" at the tender age of 2 1/2, as she stated on the The Jack Benny Program (1950). Her father, James Claude Hood Jr., a banker, and especially her mother, Elizabeth Davner Hood, ...
"Our Gang"
13. Sybil Jason
Actress | The Little Princess
Sybil Jacobson was born on November 23, 1929, in Cape Town, South Africa. By age 2 she had learned to play the piano, and she also demonstrated a remarkable talent for singing, dancing and mimicry. She moved to Great Britain as a small child, and by age 5 was singing, dancing, playing the piano or ...
"Little Big Shot" (1934), "The Blue Bird" (1940).
14. Connie Marshall
Actress | Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
A promising blue-to-gray-eyed, blonde-haired child actress of the post-WWII years who had more talent than she was given credit for, little Constance Beekman "Connie" Marshall was born on April 28, 1933 in New York City. Her parents were not of show business stock, her father being a lieutenant ...
"Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"
15. Peggy McIntyre
Actress | The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe
Peggy McIntyre was born on January 17, 1932 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. She is an actress, known for The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942), I Remember Mama (1948) and Small Town Girl (1953).
"I Remember Mama"
16. Joan Carroll
Actress | Meet Me in St. Louis
Joan Felt was born on January 18, 1931, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Her mother was quite a famous piano player in the 1930s. Six-year-old Joan made her film debut in Walking Down Broadway (1938). She played the role of Sunny, and changed her name from Felt to Carroll. A role in Two Sisters (1938) ...
"Meet Me in St. Louis"
17. Patti Brady
Actress | Never Say Goodbye
Patti Brady was born on May 15, 1937 in Woodside, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Never Say Goodbye (1946), Gasoline Alley (1951) and Corky of Gasoline Alley (1951).
With Errol Flynn in "Never Say Goodbye" (1946)
18. Ann E. Todd
Actress | How Green Was My Valley
Ann E. Todd was born Ann Todd Phillips on August 26, 1931, in Denver, Colorado. Both of her parents had extensive careers in music; her father, Burrill Phillips, was an accomplished composer and pianist. Ann also had one brother, Stephen, who was born in 1937 (and died in 1986). Ann was adopted and...
In "The Blue Bird" with Shirley Temple and "Bad Little Angel" with Virginia Weidler.
19. June Hedin
Actress | I Remember Mama
June Hedin was born on July 19, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for I Remember Mama (1948), The Way of All Flesh (1940) and The 13th Letter (1951). She died on September 2, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
Returned to acting after 21 years to appear in "Welcome to Arrow Beach" (1973).
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