Peggy Ann Garner

Peggy Ann Garner (February 3, 1932 – October 16, 1984) was an American actress born at Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio. Her father, William H. Garner, was an attorney, and her mother, Virginia Craig Garner, directed her toward performing from an early age, entering her in talent competitions as a child. Before working in film, Garner spent two years as a model for still photographers. Her parents, who had married in Toledo, Ohio on April 7, 1931, divorced on February 26, 1947. Garner attended University High School in Los Angeles.

Her film career began in 1938 at the age of six with a small role as an orphan in the Warner Bros. production Little Miss Thoroughbred (1939). Supporting appearances followed in In Name Only (1939), Blondie Brings Up Baby (1939), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), and Eagle Squadron (1942). She stepped into a more substantial part in The Pied Piper (1942) after the originally cast actress fell ill with measles. In 1943, Twentieth Century Fox cast her as the young Jane Eyre in their adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel, a performance that drew significant critical praise. The following year, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer sought to borrow Garner for National Velvet (1944), but Fox declined to share her contract; the role ultimately went to her Jane Eyre co-star Elizabeth Taylor. Also in 1944, director Elia Kazan cast Garner as Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, based on Betty Smith's novel. That performance, released in 1945, brought her widespread acclaim and led to her receiving the Academy Juvenile Award at the 18th Academy Awards in 1946, which recognized her body of contributions to film in 1945, with particular attention to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and her leading role in the Twentieth Century Fox comedy Junior Miss (1945), a production the studio had developed with Garner specifically in mind. She also appeared that year in the musical Nob Hill (1945). In 1947, she appeared as herself in a promotional trailer for Miracle on 34th Street.

Garner continued working in film through the remainder of the 1940s, with credits including Home Sweet Homicide (1946), Thunder in the Valley (1947), Daisy Kenyon (1947), The Sign of the Ram (1948), Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949), The Big Cat (1949), and The Lovable Cheat (1949). Like many performers who began as child actors, she found the transition to adult film roles difficult, appearing in only two features during the 1950s: Teresa (1951) and Black Widow (1954).

Her stage work developed alongside and eventually beyond her film career. In 1949, she starred in Peg O' My Heart at the Famous Artists Playhouse in Fayetteville, New York. Her Broadway career spanned from 1950 to 1954 and included appearances in A Royal Family, First Lady, Home Is the Hero, and The Manxman. In 1954, she toured several states in a production of The Moon Is Blue, and beginning in 1955 she headlined the national tour of William Inge's Broadway play Bus Stop, appearing alongside Albert Salmi and Dick York.

Garner's television work was extensive. In 1950, she starred as Esther Smith in the NBC radio comedy Meet Me in St. Louis, which ran for two months. The following year she starred in the ABC comedy series Two Girls Named Smith (1951). She served as a panelist on Leave It to the Girls, which aired on both ABC and NBC, and on NBC's Who Said That? In summer 1960, she appeared in an episode of Producer's Choice and was cast as Julie in the Western series Tate. She appeared in two episodes of the ABC series Adventures in Paradise with Gardner McKay, in 1960 and 1962 respectively. In 1961, she appeared alongside her then-husband Albert Salmi in the Naked City episode "Button in the Haystack," in which the couple played husband and wife onscreen, and she starred with Richard Boone in the Have Gun – Will Travel episode "Dream Girl." During the early 1960s, she also appeared in single episodes of Bonanza and Combat!, both directed by Robert Altman.

Between acting engagements, Garner worked as a real estate agent and fleet car executive. After a decade away from feature films, she returned to the screen in Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978), playing a pregnant aunt in the critically acclaimed ensemble film. Her final screen appearance was a small role in the television film This Year's Blonde (1980).

Garner married singer and game show host Richard Hayes on February 22, 1951; they divorced in 1953. She subsequently married actor Albert Salmi on May 16, 1956, and they divorced on March 13, 1963. Her final marriage was to Kenyon Foster Brown, which also ended in divorce. The couple had one child, Catherine Ann Salmi, who died of heart disease on May 17, 1995, at age 38. Garner died on October 16, 1984, from pancreatic cancer at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles. She was 52 years old.