Baby Peggy, Child Star of Silent Films, Dies at 101

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/baby-peggy-dead-silent-film-star-was-101-831926


Baby Peggy in February 2016 at her home in Gustine, California

Before Shirley Temple, she was the young queen of Hollywood, earning $1 million a year, but her movie career did not last long.

Diana Serra Cary, the silent film sensation known as Baby Peggy whose career in Hollywood came to a crashing halt when she was the ripe old age of six, has died. She was 101.

Cary, who from 1921 through 1924 appeared in as many as 150 short films and a handful of popular features, died Monday in Gustine, California, according to Rena Kiehn of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

Without uttering a word onscreen, the emotive child actress with the distinctive bob haircut starred as Little Red Riding Hood in 1922 in a short film of the same name and in Hansel and Gretel (1923) in another short; took part in a bullfight in Carmen Jr. (1924); escaped from a burning building in The Darling of New York (1923); and ran a lighthouse in the heart-tugging Captain January (1924).

Most of her films have been lost; many were destroyed in a raging fire that consumed the old Century Film Co. studios in 1926.

</snip>

Baby Peggy, circa 1922

Cross gently, Diana. Truly the last of that era.

[LenaBaby61]

1. I am a huge fan of Silents ...

And have seen all of the Baby Peggy movies that exist, and she was most definitely a treasure.

There are, of course, not many actors--child or adult--who remain from the silent era, and only 2 original Little Rascals stars remaining. Mildred Kornman 94 & Robert Blake 86 are the last 2 Rascals who remain. Two of the last/oldest Little Rascals short players who recently passed were Dorothy Morrison Green, who passed in 2017 @ age 98, and Lassie Lou Ahern who passed in 2018 @ age 97. Speaking of Green, she was the little sister of Sunshine Sammy Morrison who passed away in 1989 @ age 76 (My late parents knew Sunshine Sammy, who was the first AA actor to sign a long term contract). Sammy was a star in silents in his own right before he appeared in the very first Little Rascal comedy movies/shorts.

The end is drawing near where everything was once shiny and new in Hollywood.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. One of my favorite Harold Lloyd shorts (before he switched to 5-reelers) was with Morrison

Get Out and Get Under - 1920