In 1931, a one-day effort by Marilyn Knowldens 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 screens 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, Im 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 Knowldens autobiography Little Girl in Big Pictures.
Kim as a Child
Film 1936
Anne Boyd
Film 1931
Imogene
Film 1939
Gwendolyn (uncredited)
Film 1938
Princesse Therese
Film 1938
Julia Blaine
Film 1938
Amy's Classmate (uncredited)
Film 1933
Co-ed in Drugstore (uncredited)
Film 1944
Frances Standish, as a child
Film 1932
Maria
Film 1935
Ann
Film 1938
Annie Benton
Film 1931
Laury - as a Child
Film 1938
Flora at Age 9 (uncredited)
Film 1936
Lucille Layton
Film 1936
Marianna Van Horn (uncredited)
Film 1940
Gwen Ferry
Film 1936
Jessie Pullman, Age 8 (uncredited)
Film 1934
Ruth as a Girl (Uncredited)
Film 1932