HOME INDEX
SILENT MOVIE
THE INTERNATIONAL SILENT MOVIE MAIL English Version

 
Baby Marie Osborne

Photo: Nelson Evans (1890-1923)

1911 - 2010

.
.
The actress Marie Osborne - who was also called Baby Marie Osborne or Little Mary Sunshine - was born as Helen Alice Myres in Denver.

She grew up as a foster-daughter of the family Osborn who worked for the Balboa Amusement Company in California.
There was als director Henry King engaged who was looking for a boy for his latest movie. When he spotted the little Marie Osborne with her short hair cut he put her into a boy's clothes and turned her into a boy.
So after her film debut with "Kidnapped in New York" (14) she played a boy in King's movie "The Maid of the Wild" (15).
Afterwards Henry King engaged Marie Osborne for several other movies as a child star. To these movies belong "Little Mary Sunshine" (16) - with this movie she became an international movie star, "Shadows and Sunshine (16), "Twin Kiddies" (17) and "Sunshine and Gold" (17).

In the next years she took part in other silent movies like "Captain Kiddo" (17), "The Little Patriot" (17), "A Daughter of the West" (18), "Winning Grandma" (18), "Milady o' the Beanstalk" (19), "The Little Diplomat "(19) and "Daddy Number Two" (19).

Afterwards she retired from the film business and did not return till 1934.
In the following years she only impersonated very small roles in productions like "Roberta" (35), "The Last Days of Pompeii" (35), "Stage Door" (37), "Follow the Boys" (44), "Arch of Triumph" (48) and "Bunco Squad" (50).
Beside it she also was a stand-in for Ginger Rogers, Betty Hutton and Deanne Durbin.

Finally she retired as an actress for good and from 1954 she began to work as a wardrobe for feature movies. To these works belong "Around the World in Eighty Days" (56), "The Great Impostor" (61), "Cleopatra" (63), "How to Murder Your Wife" (65), "The Chase" (66), "The Way We Were" (73) and "The Godfather II" (74).

Marie Osborne never met her real father and the circumstances she became the foster child of the Osborns are unclear. Her foster parents did not tell her that she was adopted and they spent her income as an actress. Only in 1933 she was informed that she was adopted. Officially Marie Osborne was born as the daughter of Roy and Mary Myres. But only after the death of the tycoon H. L. Shriver she got aware that he was her real father and that he left a huge heritage for her.

Other movies with Baby Marie Osborne: 
Should a Wife Forgive? (15) Joy and the Dragon (16) Told at Twilight (17) When Baby Forgot (17) Tears and Smiles (17) Daddy's Girl (18) Dolly Does Her Bit (18) The Voice of Destiny (18) Cupid by Proxy (18) Dolly's Vacation (18) Child of M'sieu (19) The Old Maid's Baby (19) The Sawdust Doll (19) Ababy Marie's Round-Up (19) Miss Gingersnap (19) Caroline (34) We're Only Human (35) Swing Time (36) Wise Girl (37) Having Wonderful Time (38) His Butler's Sister (43) Here Come the Co-eds (45) My Own True Love (49) 


 
Back