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Mitzi Green

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Mitzi Green
Green, 1932
Born
Elizabeth Keno

(1920-10-22)October 22, 1920
The Bronx, New York, U.S.[1]
DiedMay 24, 1969(1969-05-24) (aged 48)
Huntington Beach, California, U.S.[1]
Resting placeEden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California
Years active1929–1955
SpouseJoseph Pevney (1942–1969) (her death) (4 children)

Mitzi Green (born Elizabeth Keno; October 22, 1920 – May 24, 1969)[1] was an American child actress for Paramount and RKO, in the early "talkies" era. She then acted on Broadway and in other stage works, as well as in films and on television.

Celebrities including Frederick Jagel, Marsha Hunt, Robert Taylor, Jean Harlow and Mitzi Green were invited to Washington, D.C., to assist with President's Birthday Ball fundraising activities (January 30, 1937)

Early years

Mitzi Green, was born in The Bronx on October 22, 1920. Starting at the age 3, she began appearing in her parents' vaudeville act under the name Little Mitzi.[2]

Career

Green was cast in such conventional juvenile parts as Becky Thatcher in Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931) opposite Jackie Coogan and Jackie Searl. She also starred in the title role of Little Orphan Annie. At the age of 14, she played a soubrette role in Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934). This film closed out the first stage of her Hollywood career.

She went on to Broadway, where she starred in the original production of Rodgers and Hart's Babes in Arms (1937).[3] Two of Green's numbers in the musical were "My Funny Valentine," which would later become a jazz standard in many cover recordings and performances, and "The Lady is a Tramp".

Green made one more film in 1940, then went back to stage and nightclub work, including Walk with Music by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer, and the Betty Comden and Adolph Green musical Billion Dollar Baby. Green married Broadway (and later movie and TV) director Joseph Pevney and retired to raise a family. In 1951, she returned briefly to the screen opposite Abbott and Costello in Lost in Alaska (1951) and in Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952), co-starring another Mitzi—Mitzi Gaynor.

In 1955, she starred with Virginia Gibson and Gordon Jones in the short-lived NBC TV sitcom So This Is Hollywood, in the role of Queenie Dugan, a high-spirited stuntwoman.[4]

After a brief stint on the nightclub circuit, Green retired again, although she did appear in summer stock and dinner theater around the Los Angeles area thereafter, and she appeared occasionally as a guest on talk shows.

Recognition

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Green received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6430 Hollywood Blvd.[5]

Death

On May 24, 1969, Green died in Huntington Beach, California, at age 48, of cancer.[1][6]

Partial filmography

Stage

Bibliography

  • Best, Marc. Those Endearing Young Charms: Child Performers of the Screen (South Brunswick and New York: Barnes & Co., 1971), pp. 100–104.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Mitzi Green - L.A. Times Hollywood Star Walk
  2. ^ Los Angeles Times
  3. ^ Everett, William A.; Laird, Paul R. (2015). Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 136. ISBN 9781442256699. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  4. ^ Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 987. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
  5. ^ Mitzi Green - Hollywood Walk of Fame
  6. ^ Ellenberger, Allan R. (2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland. p. 30. ISBN 9780786409839. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
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