Joan Carroll

Joan Carroll, born Joan Marie Felt on January 18, 1931, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, was an American child actress and performer who worked in film and on Broadway before retiring in 1950. She died on November 16, 2016, near her home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, at the age of 85.

Carroll trained as a singer and tap dancer at the Fanchon and Marco Dancing School in Hollywood, where she developed the skills that would define her early career. Her birth surname was Felt, and her stage name passed through the spelling Carol before settling on Carroll. Between 1937 and 1940 she appeared in supporting roles across several films, with her profile rising significantly when she was cast as Ginger Rogers's younger sister in the 1940 feature Primrose Path, a performance that earned her a Critics Award.

That same year, Carroll made history as the first child star called from Hollywood to take a leading role in a Broadway musical. The production was Panama Hattie, which opened on October 30, 1940, and ran through January 3, 1942. Her Broadway appearance in 1940 remains her sole credited stage credit.

Following her Broadway engagement, Carroll became RKO Radio Pictures' principal juvenile performer in both A and B productions. The studio cast her opposite Ruth Warrick in two comedy films: Obliging Young Lady in 1941 and Petticoat Larceny in 1943. As she moved into adolescence her film appearances became less frequent, though two productions from that period drew particular attention. In 1944 she appeared in Meet Me in St. Louis alongside Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien, playing their sister, and in 1945 she took a role in The Bells of St. Mary's as the child of separated parents.

Carroll retired from performing after 1950. In 1951 she married James Joseph Krack, and she went on to have four children. On July 7, 2011, she and her brother donated a historic family lamp to the Nevada State Museum. She was survived by her four children and extended family at the time of her death in 2016.