Joan Carroll (born Joan Marie Felt, January 18, 1931 – November 16, 2016) was an American child actress who appeared in films until retiring in 1945.

Childhood career

Carroll was born Joan Marie Felt to Wright and Freida Felt on January 18, 1931. Her father was a government electrical engineer, and her mother was a club and stage pianist. Carroll took dramatic lessons when she was very young and was performing locally by age 4. Her family moved to California in 1936, where she received a bit part in '' The First Baby'' (1936; billed as ''Mary Joan Felt''). Carroll developed into an excellent singer and tap dancer at the Fanchon and Marco Dancing School in Hollywood, and became an accomplished child actress. Her stage name was changed to Carol and then Carroll. Between 1937 and 1940 she appeared in supporting roles in several movies. Her big break came the 1940 film, '' Primrose Path'', as

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

's younger sister, for which she won a Critics Award. The same year she became the first child star to be summoned from Hollywood in order to appear in the leading role in a Broadway musical, ''

Panama Hattie ''Panama Hattie'' is a 1940 American musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. The musical is about a nightclub owner, Hattie Maloney, who lives in the Panama Canal Zone and ends up dealing with ...

'', which ran from October 30, 1940 to January 3, 1942. Carroll became

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

' resident juvenile personality in both "A" and "B" pictures. RKO starred Carroll in the leading role with Ruth Warrick in two zany comedy

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

s, ''

Obliging Young Lady ''Obliging Young Lady'' is a 1942 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Wallace (director), Richard Wallace and starring Joan Carroll, Edmond O'Brien, Ruth Warrick. Plot On the instructions of their lawyer, the wealthy young daughter ...

'' (1941) and '' Petticoat Larceny'' (1943). She continued to work in films as an adolescent, but less frequently. Two of her best-remembered pictures came from this period: ''

Meet Me in St. Louis ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' is a 1944 American Christmas film, Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith famil ...

'' (1944) as

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

and

Margaret O'Brien Angela Maxine O'Brien (born January 15, 1937) is an American film, radio, television, and stage actress, and is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Beginning a prolific career as a child actress in feature ...

's sister, and ''

The Bells of St. Mary's ''The Bells of St. Mary's'' (1945) is an American musical comedy-drama film, produced and directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Written by Dudley Nichols and based on a story by McCarey, the film is about a priest ...

'' (1945), in which she played "the sensitive child of separated parents."

Later life

After ''The Bells of St. Mary's'' in 1945, Carroll retired. She married in 1951 to James Joseph Krack; the couple had four children. She and her brother donated a historic family lamp to the Nevada State Museum on July 7, 2011. The lamp was originally given to her father, Wright Felt, who was the Public Works Administrator for Nevada at the time the

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on S ...

was built. The lamp was created out of materials used in the construction of the 155-mile, $900,000 power line to the Hoover Dam, and was presented to him by the Lincoln County Power District No. 1 on September 25, 1937, for his assistance with the project. Carroll died on November 16, 2016 near her home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, aged 85. She was survived by her four children and extended family.

Filmography

Bibliography

* Best, Marc. ''Those Endearing Young Charms: Child Performers of the Screen''. South Brunswick and New York: Barnes & Co., 1971, pp. 20–24; /

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Joan 1931 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from New Jersey Singers from New Jersey Actresses from California Singers from California American child actresses American film actresses American musical theatre actresses 21st-century American women