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Edith Fellows

Actress / Television Actress / Film Actress | * 05/20/1923 († 88, 06/26/2011) | Boston, Massachusetts (United States of America (USA))
Edith Marilyn Fellows (May 20, 1923 – June 26, 2011) was an American actress who became a child star in the 1930s. Best known for playing orphans and street urchins, Fellows was an expressive actress with a good singing voice. She made her screen debut at the age of five in Charley Chase's film short Movie Night (1929). Her first credited role in a feature film was The Rider of Death Valley (1932). By 1935, she had appeared in over twenty films. Her performance opposite Claudette Colbert and Melvyn Douglas in She Married Her Boss (1935) won her a seven-year contract with Columbia Pictures, the first such contract offered to a child. Fellows appeared in a series of leading roles for Columbia, including Tugboat Princess (1936), Little Miss Roughneck (1938), and The Little Adventuress (1938). Her performance as the precocious orphan alongside Bing Crosby in ... ()
Photo of Edith Fellows

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.

Most frequent genres for this person: Drama | Comedies | Romance / Love

Known for these Movies & Shows

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Movies with Edith Fellows as Actress(48)

as Mrs. Long, Judy's Mother1987 In the Mood
as Edith Head1983 Grace Kelly
as Self (clip from "Pennies from Heaven")1968 The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell
as Patient (uncredited)1964 Lilith
as Sue Norman1942 Girls' Town
as Connie Lane1942 Heart of the Rio Grande
as Judy Drew1942 Stardust on the Sage
as Milly Lou1941 Her First Beau
as Linda Strong1940 Her First Romance
as Polly Pepper1940 Five Little Peppers in Trouble
as Polly Pepper1940 Out West with the Peppers
as Mary O'Malley1940 Music in My Heart
as Polly Pepper1940 Five Little Peppers at Home
as Midge Griner1939 Pride of the Blue Grass
as Winnie Brady1938 City Streets
as Foxine LaRue1938 Little Miss Roughneck
as Dodie Martin1937 Life Begins with Love
as Patsy Smith1936 Pennies from Heaven
as Brenda Farnham1936 And So They Were Married
as 'Princess' Judy1936 Tugboat Princess
as Annabel Barclay1935 She Married Her Boss
as Jean Marie Meredith / Little Scout1935 The Keeper of the Bees
as Ellen1935 One Way Ticket
as Sally1935 Dinky
as Little Sister1934 Cross Streets
as Alice (as a child)1934 His Greatest Gamble
as Little Girl in Ice Cream Number (uncredited)1934 Kid Millions
as Rogers' Daughter (uncredited)1934 Two Alone
as Adele Rochester1934 Jane Eyre
as Australia Wiggs1934 Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
as Edith1933 Mush and Milk
as Gypsy as a Child (uncredited)1932 Emma
as Little Girl with Kite1932 Divorce In The Family
as Betty Joyce1932 The Rider of Death Valley
as Betty Kelley1932 Law and Lawless
as Little Girl at Aquarium (uncredited)1932 Penguin Pool Murder
as Girl with String in Mouth1932 Birthday Blues
as Schoolgirl (uncredited)1931 Huckleberry Finn
as (uncredited)1931 Cimarron
as Orphan (uncredited)1931 Daddy Long Legs
as Orphan girl1931 Second Hand Kisses
as Girls Scared of Elephant1930 Shivering Shakespeare
as Daughter1929 Movie Night
as Child at Puppet Show (uncredited)1929 Madame X

TV Shows/Series with Edith Fellows as Actress(2)

as Sadie Hubbell1994 ER

Full Name: Edith Fellows
Born: Sunday, 05/20 1923 (May) in Boston, Massachusetts (United States of America (USA))
Died: Sunday, 06/26 2011 (June) in Woodland Hills (aged: 88)
Zodiac sign: Taurus (Chinese zodiac sign: Pig)
Languages: English (EN, native language)
Educated at: Hollywood Professional School
Spouses (current/former): Freddie Fields
Children: Kathy Fields
Other names for Edith Fellows (nicknames, foreign languages etc.):
"Edythe Fellows"
Edith Fellows frequently works together with these people:
Lydia Woodward (7x, Crew)
Tommy Bond (6x, Actor)
Joe Sachs (6x, Crew)
Lance Gentile (6x, Crew)
Neal Baer (5x, Crew)
Charles Barton (5x, Crew)
Dorothy Peterson (5x, Actress)
Jackie Cooper (4x, Actor)
Margaret Sidney (4x, Crew)
Guy Usher (4x, Actor)
Rex Evans (4x, Actor)
Charles Peck (4x, Cast)
WatchPlayStream ID: PEOPLE:198019, Added: 07/21/2018, Last updated: 03/14/2024