Sally O'Neil
Sally O'Neil (born Virginia Louise Concepta Noonan, October 23, 1908 · Bayonne, New Jersey, died of pneumonia, June 18, 1968 · Galesburg, Illinois) was an American movie star.
Biography from Imdb.com
Cute-as-a-button, diminutive (5'2"), green-eyed brunette Sally O'Neil (sometimes billed as Sally O'Neill) was a silent and early sound leading lady who maintained her leading status throughout her film career. Born on October 23, 1908, in Bayonne, New Jersey, her father, Thomas Francis Patrick Noonan, was a judge, and her mother, Hannah Kelly, was a one-time singer with the Metropolitan Opera. One of 11 children, Sally's younger sister, who billed herself as Molly O'Day, became a well-known movie actress around the same time.
Sally was educated in a convent and began her career in vaudeville, where she was billed as "Chotsie Noonan" (her real name was Virginia Louise Concepta Noonan). She started her career in silent films at the age of 17 and quickly developed a knack for playing innocent, unassuming characters, much like Mary Pickford, in short films.
Sally quickly rose to starring roles with the lightweight film Don't (1925) opposite John Patrick, which was billed as "a rip-roaring picture of rebellious youth!" where she plays a Clara Bow-type party girl who gets an OTK spanking. She swiftly gained fame with her second film, the dramedy Sally, Irene and Mary (1925), co-starring as a flighty, naive chorus girl named Mary alongside the more worldly Constance Bennett and virtuous Joan Crawford. As a result of this success, she was named (like her sister Molly) a Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers {WAMPAS) Baby Star in 1926.
The actress became a moderately popular MGM figure (both in lead and secondary roles) in several films, including Mike (1926) opposite William Haines; the comedy The Auction Block (1926) starring Charles Ray and Eleanor Boardman, where she played a flirtatious third wheel; the action romancer Battling Butler (1926) opposite Buster Keaton; the sports comedy Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927), again with Haines; the title roles in Frisco Sally Levy (1927) and Becky (1927); and the dramedy The Callahans and the Murphys (1927), playing the daughter of feisty Marie Dressler.
Elsewhere for other studios, Sally co-starred with her sister Molly O'Neil in the silent romantic drama The Lovelorn (1927), as well as in the dramatic features Mad Hour (1928) and Bachelor's Paradise (1928), and the romantic musical comedy Broadway Fever (1929).
Having a strong New Jersey accent and developing severe stage fright did not help her career with the advent of talking pictures. While Sally continued to appear in films for nearly another decade, her star faded, and she never reached the top tier. Some notable early sound films include another feature with her sister Molly Sisters (1930)) and the glamorous title roles in Kathleen Mavourneen (1930) and The Brat (1931). She played a Broadway gold-digger in Ladies Must Love (1933); a vixen in the drama By Appointment Only (1933); a woman caught between two men in the adventure Sixteen Fathoms Deep (1934); and a female reporter in Too Tough to Kill (1935). Her last film was a starring role as an Irish girl in the obscure British production Kathleen (1937).
Following this, Sally faded from view, but turned to Broadway with When We Are Married (1939) and The Old Foolishness (1940). She also toured with the USO until the 1950s. Divorced from James Kenaston in 1952, Sally married businessman Stewart S. Battles a year later. They divorced in 1957, but would remarry. She died of pneumonia at the age of 59 on June 18, 1968.
- Sally O'Neil gallery
from Don't (1925)
External links
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Sally_O'Neil ]
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