Marilyn Knowlden
In 1931, a one-day effort by Marilyn Knowlden's attorney father led to an interview, a next-day screen test and a large part for four-year-old Marilyn in one of the early "talkies", Women Love Once (1931). A ten-year movie career followed, where she played the daughter of such stars as Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn, Allan Jones and Norma Shearer.
She appeared in some of the screen's great classics, including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), David Copperfield (1935) and Les Misérables (1935), in which she played the child Cosette. She appeared in six films nominated by the Academy for Best Production of the Year and performed with such distinguished actors as Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Greta Garbo and Bette Davis.
College, marriage and four children followed. A composer and playwright as well as an actress, she wrote the music and lyrics for ten produced musicals, including three for which she also wrote the scripts. The latter included her musical, "I'm Gonna Get You in the Movies!" for which she drew heavily on her own early experience.
After a 50-year hiatus, Marilyn returned to acting in 1994. She appeared in over 20 plays and musicals in San Diego County, including the role of Aunt Abby in "Arsenic and Old Lace," the leads in "Sorry, Wrong Number" and "Quilters," and Prof. Higgins' mother in "My Fair Lady." In 2011 Bear Manor published Marilyn Knowlden's autobiography "Little Girl in Big Pictures".
Knowlden died on September 15, 2025 of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Eagle, Idaho.
Acting
Movie
Angels with Dirty Faces
as Laury - as a Child
1938
Movie
Little Women
as Meg’s Charge (uncredited)
1933
Movie
Imitation of Life
as Jessie Pullman, Age 8 (uncredited)
1934
Movie
David Copperfield
as Agnes Wickfield as a Girl
1935
Movie
All This, and Heaven Too
as Marianna Van Horn (uncredited)
1940
Movie
Les Misérables
as Little Cosette (as Marilynne Knowlden)
1935
Movie
Show Boat
as Kim as a Child
1936
Movie
Marie Antoinette
as Princesse Therese
1938
Movie
Anthony Adverse
as Florence Udney
1936
Movie
Call Her Savage
as Ruth as a Girl (Uncredited)
1932
Movie
A Woman Rebels
as Flora at Age 9 (uncredited)
1936
Movie
Condemned to Live
as Maria
1935
Movie
Just Around the Corner
as Gwendolyn (uncredited)
1938
Movie
As the Earth Turns
as Esther
1934
Movie
Slave Ship
as Girl
1937
Movie
The Way of All Flesh
as Julie Kriza
1940
Movie
The World Changes
as Young Selma (uncredited)
1933
Movie
Barefoot Boy
as Julia Blaine
1938
Movie
The Cisco Kid
as Annie Benton
1931
Movie
The Conquerors
as Frances Standish, as a child
1932
Movie
Broadway Rhythm
as Co-ed in Drugstore (uncredited)
1944
Movie
Rainbow on the River
as Lucille Layton
1936
Movie
Husband's Holiday
as Anne Boyd
1931
Movie
Hidden Power
as Imogene
1939