Where Is She Now: Margaret OBrien (Actress) as Tootie - Meet Me in St. Louis.
Updated: 2/18/10
Name: Margaret OBrien
Birth Name: Angela Maxine O'Brien
Born: January 15, 1937, San Diego, California, U.S.
Claim To Fame: Her most memorable role was as Tootie in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland.
Family Life: She has been married twice, to Harold Allen, Jr. from 1959 to 1968, and presently to Roy Thorsen. She has one child with Thorson, Mara Tolene Thorsen, born in 1977.
Info: O'Brien was just four-years-old when she first
appeared on screen in Babes on Broadway (1941). The following year, she earned widespread recognition and praise for her starring role in Journey for Margaret, and this led to a cameo appearance in the all-star military show finale of Thousands Cheer.
In 1944's Jane Eyre, she played a young French girl, and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French accent. Her next role was arguably her most memorable - as Tootie in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland. For her performance, she was rewarded with an Academy Juvenile Award the following year as the outstanding child actress of 1944.
She found success with roles in The Canterville Ghost (1944), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), and the first sound version of The Secret Garden (1949).
Trivia: Her mother, Gladys Flores, was a well-known
flamenco dancer who often performed with her sister
Marissa, also a dancer.
Is of half-Irish and half-Spanish ancestry.
Has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard, and for television at 1620 Vine St.
Considered by most film critics and historians as the greatest child actors of all time.
Adopted as her professional first name the name of the character who was her first credited part in Journey for Margaret (1942).
Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1996.
In 2006, she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University.
Where Is She Now: As an adult, her acting roles have been few and far between. She has made a few recent appearances
in smaller, independent films including Dead in Love and Frankenstein Rising. Occasionally, she does interviews, mostly for the Turner Classic Movies cable network. O'Brien also devotes her time to charitable affairs.
