Margaret O'Brien

Margaret O'Brien is one of those child actors who makes you genuinely forget she's a kid — there's a raw emotional intelligence in her work that still feels startling today. Her breakdown scene in Meet Me in St. Louis, where little Tootie destroys the snow family on Christmas Eve, is the kind of moment that makes you put down whatever you're doing and just watch. It's no surprise the Academy invented a special Juvenile Award in 1944 just to honor her — the regular categories probably felt unfair to the adults. Born in San Diego in 1937, she was churning out MGM films practically before she could read a full script, and she held her own opposite Judy Garland, which is saying something. She's earned her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame many times over, and honestly remains underrated in the broader conversation about great screen acting.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Margaret O'Brien

Name (Japanese)

マーガレット・オブライエン

Reading

まーがれっと・おぶらいえん

Born

January 15, 1937 (age 89)

Origin

San Diego, California, United States

Occupation

stage actor / television actor / film actor / actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Ox

Awards & achievements

• 1945 Academy Juvenile Award
• star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
• Academy Honorary Award

• Official sitehttps://www.missmargaretobrien.com/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret%20O'Brien
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AC%E3%83%AC%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AA%E3%83%96%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q241273

Tags

• California
• stage actor
• television actor
• film actor

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.