Born Today January 9: Anita Louise

1915-1970

Actress Anita Louise [Fremault], who was a child star, was born on this day in New York City.  Although she is best known for her roles in the 1930's, she did appear in a number of films in the 1920's.  She made her acting debut directly on the Broadway stage at the age of 6 in 1921.  By the following year she had made her film debut in a very small (uncredited) part in the 1922 Quaker whaling drama Down to the Sea in Ships starring Marguerite Courtot and featuring Clara Bow.  Her first named credit came in a film came in 1924 at the age of 9 in the Christy Cabanne film The Sixth Commandment (she is credited under Anita Fremault).  Throughout the rest of the decade she would take a few small parts in films including a role in F. W. Murnau's all sound 4 Devils, an early talkie (now famously lost). In 1929, she dropped her last name and decided to use only her first two names as her "stage name;" This is also the year--at the age of 14--that her film career would take off with a marked increase in the number of roles she was offered, and would continue at a steady pace all the way through the 1940's.  The last "silent" film that she appeared in  came in the 1929 partial silent The Marriage Playground, a comedic romance starring Mary Brian (who was playing a teenager) and Frederic March, the film was released a month before her 15th birthday.  She was named a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931 (with the motion picture industry skipping the year 1930 for the roster).  She went from playing roles that were younger versions of roles played by older actresses in the later 1920's and early 1930's, to a leading lady by 1935.  That was the same year that she was a part of the large cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is that  Shakespeare adaptation that includes James Cagney.  Louise made her television debut in in 1950 after being away from film for 3 years.  She appeared Landing at Daybreak and episode of Stars Over Broadway.  Two years after this, she appeared in Retreat, Hell; it would be her last role for the big screen, and, keep in mind, she was only 37 years old.  The rest of her career would be spent in television; she had a regular role on My Friend Flicka; and appeared in episodes of Ethel Barrymore Theater, The Loretta Young Show and Mannix.  Her last role came in Call Back Yesterday, an episode of The Mod Squad in 1970, just a month before her untimely death.  Anita Louise died on the 25th of April after suffering a stroke.  She was only 55 years old.  She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park at Glendale next to her first husband, producer Buddy Adler, with whom she had two children.  In addition to being a movie star, she was also one of Hollywood's most active socialites.  

[photo: Find A Grave]

[photo: Find A Grave]

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