Elizabeth Taylor was 10 when she made her first film, There's One Born Every Minute, (1942) and was only 12 when National Velvet made her famous. One of the few child stars of the time to enjoy progressively more success as she grew older, Elizabeth Taylor had a long and impressive career —  starring in more than 50 films, at least 20 television appearances, and taking home two Oscars.

Much will be said about her over the next several days, but I remember her fondly as Amy in the wretched June Allyson version of Little Women, and pretty much anything she did with Montgomery Clift.

Elizabeth Taylor died today at the age of 79. Her last birthday was on the day of the 83rd Academy Awards and I hope she had a wonderful evening (in spite of the show and being in the hospital).

Just last week I posted a clip of one of her early cinematic turns as little orphan Jane's only and, sadly, fatally consumptive friend in the 1943 film Jane Eyre. Here she is a scant five years later in the trailer of A Date with Judy (1948).  I leave it to you to marvel at her development.

Listen! National Velvet, Lux Radio Theater
(Broadcast February 3, 1947 — It's nearly an hour, so make some popcorn)

A sweet talent, pushed too early by a stage mother, eventually struggling through a few sad marriages, then a sudden(ish) demise,  Peggy Ann Garner was a wonderful performer, whose star, sadly, never shone past her teenage years.

Her film career began as an uncredited praying orphan in Little Miss Thoroughbred at age 7, then on to In Name Only with Cary Grant and Carole Lombard and progressively bigger roles until her starring performance as Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, for which she won a special Oscar in 1945 at age 12.

Aaaand then it was pretty much downhill from there. By 1949 she was in pictures like Bomba the Jungle Boy and The Big Cat.

The second of her three marriages was to Albert Salmi, that guy who shows up in  a bunch of Twilight Zones and Westerns with the thin upper lip who talks with the top of his tongue pressed against his palate. [If you're interested in classic Salmi, may I recommend the Shatner version of The Brothers Karamazov?]

Peggy Ann did some live theater and television in the 1950s and 60s — including an episode of Batman as Betsy Boldface in "Ring Around the Riddler" (1967) — then retired from show business, ultimately making a living as a real estate broker and car sales manager.

She died in 1984 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 52.

As young Jane Eyre (1943). Perhaps you'll recognize her lovely brunette friend.

And briefly, as Betsy Boldface, in Batman some thirty years later.