Joan Carroll

Joan Carroll

Born: January 18, 1931
Died: November 16, 2016
in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA
Joan Carroll (January 18, 1931 - November 16, 2016) was an American child actress who appeared in films until retiring in 1945. Six-year-old Joan made her film debut in Walking Down Broadway (1938). She played the role of Sunny, and changed her name from Felt to Carroll. A role in Two Sisters (1938) followed, and the next year she had supporting roles in Barricade (1939) and Tower of London (1939). It wasn't until 1940 when Joan had her breakthrough. She had important parts in Anne of Windy Poplars (1940) and especially Primrose Path (1940), where she stole the show as Ginger Rogers' younger sister. In 1941 Joan won her first lead role in Obliging Young Lady (1942). She played Bridget Potter, who was stuck in the middle of a custody case but still found time to be the life of the party at a resort. The film costarred Ruth Warrick.

In 1942 Joan was the first child star from Hollywood to appear in a Broadway play. This play, "Panama Hattie", gave Joan national fame, and she was featured in many magazine articles and newspapers.

In 1943 she won her second lead role in Petticoat Larceny (1943), in which she played Joan Mitchell, a radio star who goes undercover to get a better feel of her roles. The film reunited Joan with Ruth Warrick. In 1944 Joan played perhaps her most famous role, that of Agnes, younger sister to Judy Garland and older sister to Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). In 1945 Joan had an important supporting role in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), starring with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. That same year she appeared in Tomorrow, the World! (1944). After these films, Joan retired.

Movies for Joan Carroll...

The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
Title: The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1973
Type: Movie
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Second Chance
Title: Second Chance
Character: Nurse
Released: September 6, 1950
Type: Movie
A bank president and his wife, facing a crisis in their life and both nearing the age of fifty, look back on what has happened to them over the years of their marriage.
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The Jack of Diamonds
Title: The Jack of Diamonds
Character: Joan Keen
Released: February 7, 1949
Type: Movie
Down on their luck, a couple rent out their ship to a mysterious man looking for treasure he'd hidden during the war. Complications ensue when it turns out he's not the only one looking for it.
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The Bells of St. Mary's
Title: The Bells of St. Mary's
Character: Patsy Gallagher
Released: December 27, 1945
Type: Movie
Father O'Malley is sent to St. Mary's, a run-down parochial school on the verge of condemnation. He and Sister Benedict work together in an attempt to save the school, though their differing methods often lead to good-natured disagreements.
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Tomorrow, the World!
Title: Tomorrow, the World!
Character: Pat Frame
Released: December 29, 1944
Type: Movie
German boy Emil comes to live with his American uncle who tries to teach the former Hitler Youth to reject Nazism.
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Meet Me in St. Louis
Title: Meet Me in St. Louis
Character: Agnes Smith
Released: November 28, 1944
Type: Movie
The life of a St. Louis family in the year before the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
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Petticoat Larceny
Title: Petticoat Larceny
Character: Joan Mitchell / Small Change
Released: July 17, 1943
Type: Movie
An 11 year old radio star decides to throw in her scripts and go undercover to get a better feel for her roles, but when she is kidnapped, trouble soon follows in this comedy.
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Obliging Young Lady
Title: Obliging Young Lady
Character: Bridget Potter
Released: April 1, 1942
Type: Movie
A woman attempts to shelter a young girl from the publicity surrounding her socialite parents' divorce.
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Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4
Title: Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1942
Type: Movie
Fourth film in the Hedda Hopper series.
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Anne of Windy Poplars
Title: Anne of Windy Poplars
Character: Betty Grayson
Released: June 28, 1940
Type: Movie
Sentimental drama about an ambitious young teacher who arrives in a small town to take the job of vice-principal. Based on one of L M Montgomery's 'Anne of Green Gables' sequels.
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Primrose Path
Title: Primrose Path
Character: Honeybell
Released: March 22, 1940
Type: Movie
Ellie Mae lives on Primrose Hill with her good-hearted and fancy free mother, her drunken father, her younger sister and a mean-spirited grandmother. The Hill is not a good part of town, however. When she meets and falls for a hard-working man, they marry and she hides her past from him. When he discovers the truth it jeopardizes their marriage.
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Laddie
Title: Laddie
Character: Sister Stanton
Released: January 18, 1940
Type: Movie
Handsome Laddie Stanton courts neighbor Pamela Pryor, meeting opposition from her stern military father, recently immigrated from England.
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Barricade
Title: Barricade
Character: Winifred Ward
Released: December 8, 1939
Type: Movie
In China, a singer and a journalist meet while traveling on a train attacked by bandits.
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A Child Is Born
Title: A Child Is Born
Character: Little Girl (uncredited)
Released: December 7, 1939
Type: Movie
A pregnant prison inmate shares her problems with the patients in a maternity ward.
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Tower of London
Title: Tower of London
Character: Lady Mowbray (uncredited)
Released: November 17, 1939
Type: Movie
In the 15th century Richard Duke of Gloucester, aided by his club-footed executioner Mord, eliminates those ahead of him in succession to the throne, then occupied by his brother King Edward IV of England. As each murder is accomplished he takes particular delight in removing small figurines, each resembling one of the successors, from a throne-room dollhouse, until he alone remains. After the death of Edward he becomes Richard III, King of England, and need only defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain power.
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Mr. Moto's Last Warning
Title: Mr. Moto's Last Warning
Character: Mary Delacour
Released: January 20, 1939
Type: Movie
A Japanese man claiming to be Mr. Moto, of the International Police, is abducted and murdered soon after disembarking from a ship at Port Said in Egypt. The real Mr. Moto is already in Port Said, investigating a conspiracy against the British and French governments.
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Gateway
Title: Gateway
Character: Child
Released: August 5, 1938
Type: Movie
Irish immigrant meets returning war correspondent on a liner bound for New York. When she resists the amours of another passenger, charges result in her being detained at Ellis Island.
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Walking Down Broadway
Title: Walking Down Broadway
Character: Sunny Martin
Released: March 11, 1938
Type: Movie
Five closely knit showgirls sign a pact to reunite one year after the closing of their Broadway production, but the lives of all five take many different turns, often for the worse.
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One Mile from Heaven
Title: One Mile from Heaven
Character: Sunny
Released: August 18, 1937
Type: Movie
A female journalist travels to a new neighborhood after getting a (false) lead and is surprised by what she finds.