1923-05-20 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.
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Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man | Self | 1999-03-04 |
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In the Mood | Mrs. Long, Judy's Mother | 1987-09-16 |
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The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 | Mrs. Wilson | 1985-08-02 |
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Grace Kelly | Edith Head | 1983-02-21 |
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Hollywood’s Children | Self | 1982-02-24 |
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Between Two Brothers | Victim's Wife | 1982-03-09 |
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The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell | Self (clip from "Pennies from Heaven") | 1968-05-08 |
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Lilith | Patient (uncredited) | 1964-10-01 |
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Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4 | Self | 1942-01-01 |
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Girls' Town | Sue Norman | 1942-03-06 |
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Stardust on the Sage | Judy Drew | 1942-05-25 |
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Criminal Investigator | Ellen | 1942-10-23 |
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Heart of the Rio Grande | Connie Lane | 1942-03-11 |
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Her First Beau | Milly Lou | 1941-05-08 |
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Music in My Heart | Mary O'Malley | 1940-01-04 |
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Five Little Peppers in Trouble | Polly Pepper | 1940-09-01 |
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Five Little Peppers at Home | Polly Pepper | 1940-02-08 |
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Nobody's Children | Pat | 1940-12-12 |
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Out West with the Peppers | Polly Pepper | 1940-06-30 |
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Her First Romance | Linda Strong | 1940-12-25 |
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Pride of the Blue Grass | Midge Griner | 1939-10-06 |
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Five Little Peppers And How They Grew | Polly Pepper | 1939-08-22 |
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Little Miss Roughneck | Foxine LaRue | 1938-01-23 |
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City Streets | Winnie Brady | 1938-07-01 |
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Life Begins with Love | Dodie Martin | 1937-10-06 |
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Pennies from Heaven | Patsy Smith | 1936-11-25 |
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Tugboat Princess | 'Princess' Judy | 1936-10-15 |
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And So They Were Married | Brenda Farnham | 1936-05-10 |
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The Keeper of the Bees | Jean Marie Meredith / Little Scout | 1935-07-14 |
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She Married Her Boss | Annabel Barclay | 1935-09-19 |
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One Way Ticket | Ellen | 1935-11-25 |
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Dinky | Sally | 1935-05-11 |
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Two Alone | Rogers' Daughter (uncredited) | 1934-01-26 |
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Kid Millions | Little Girl in Ice Cream Number (uncredited) | 1934-11-10 |
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Cross Streets | Little Sister | 1934-07-05 |
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This Side of Heaven | Felicia - Minister's Daughter (uncredited) | 1934-02-02 |
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His Greatest Gamble | Alice (as a child) | 1934-08-10 |
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Jane Eyre | Adele Rochester | 1934-08-15 |
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Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch | Australia Wiggs | 1934-10-28 |
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Mush and Milk | Edith | 1933-05-27 |
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Divorce In The Family | Little Girl with Kite | 1932-08-27 |
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The Rider of Death Valley | Betty Joyce | 1932-04-23 |
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Law and Lawless | Betty Kelley | 1932-11-29 |
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The Penguin Pool Murder | Little Girl at Aquarium (uncredited) | 1932-12-09 |
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Emma | Gypsy as a Child (uncredited) | 1932-01-02 |
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Birthday Blues | Girl with String in Mouth | 1932-11-12 |
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Daddy Long Legs | Orphan (uncredited) | 1931-06-05 |
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Cimarron | (uncredited) | 1931-01-26 |
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Second Hand Kisses | Orphan girl | 1931-03-29 |
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Huckleberry Finn | Schoolgirl (uncredited) | 1931-08-07 |
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Shivering Shakespeare | Girls Scared of Elephant | 1930-01-25 |
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Movie Night | Daughter | 1929-05-11 |
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Madame X | Child at Puppet Show (uncredited) | 1929-08-17 |
