Marilyn Knowlden in 1935's 'David Copperfield' Courtesy Everett Collection Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Marilyn Knowlden, the busy child actress of the 1930s and '40s who appeared in Little Women with Katharine Hepburn, Imitation of Life with Claudette Colbert, Les Misérables with Fredric March and in three other Oscar best picture nominees, has died. She was 99. Knowlden died Monday of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Eagle, Idaho, her son Kevin Goates told The Hollywood Reporter. During a career in Hollywood that spanned just 1931-44 but included more than three dozen pictures, Knowlden collaborated with Colbert, Hepburn, Irene Dunne and Norma Shearer as her onscreen moms in Imitation of Life (1934), A Woman Rebels (1936), Show Boat (1936) and Marie Antoinette (1938), respectively. Related Stories Movies Trax Colton, Jayne Mansfield's Co-Star in 'It Happened in Athens,' Dies at 96 Movies Robert Redford, Golden Boy of Hollywood, Dies at 89 "A special relationship can develop with the actress who plays a child's mother, even if that bond is temporary," she told author Nick Thomas in 2016. Another highlight for Knowlden included a turn as a younger version of Ann Sheridan's character in the classic Michael Curtiz-directed Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Her other best picture nominees were George Cukor's David Copperfield (1935), where she portrayed Lewis Stone's piano-playing daughter alongside Freddie Bartholomew; Mervyn LeRoy's Anthony Adverse (1936), starring March and Olivia de Havilland; and Anatole Litvak's All This, and Heaven Too (1940), starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer. None of her movies won the top Oscar, however. Knowlden always worked as a freelancer, never under contract at any studio. "Well, my father was very much in control of my career, and he didn't want me to be under contract," she told Danny Miller in a 2018 interview for Cinephiled. "I think one of the reasons is that if you're a child under contract, you have to go to the studio school, and there goes your normal life. I think he was very happy to have things the way they were." Marilyn Knowlden with Katharine Hepburn in 1936's A Woman Rebels. Courtesy Everett Collection An only child, Knowlden was born on May 12, 1926, in Oakland, California. When her dad, San Francisco attorney Robert Knowlden Jr., had a business trip to Hollywood in 1931, he brought his wife, Bertha, and her with him. "On the second day there, just for fun, my father decided to call some of the studios," she recalled. "I had been doing some little acting things in Oakland, and my teacher there had told my father that she thought I should be in the movies, so he thought he'd give it a try." Her fast-talking dad reached Paramount head of casting Fred Datig, who arranged for an interview that day. The part of Paul Lukas' and Eleanor Boardman's daughter in the early talkie Women Love Once (1931) was discussed, but Datig thought Knowlden was too young. However, she showed she was capable of handling many pages of dialogue. Plus, Boardman "much preferred the idea of a 4-year-old in the part since she didn't want people to think she was old enough to have an 8-year-old!" she said. And so, the blue-eyed Knowlden was hired the next day. (Her dad eventually put aside his law practice to serve as her full-time agent.) Hours after she learned she got the job, Knowlden was in a car with her folks when it was involved in a crash in front of the Vitaphone Studios lot in Los Feliz. On the scene was actress Dolores Costello, the wife of John Barrymore, who escorted Knowlden to her dressing room and cared for her. (While she was just bruised, her mom suffered three broken ribs and a broken collarbone in the accident.) During production on Women Love Once, director Edward Goodman took Knowlden to another soundstage to visit The Marx Brothers, then at work on Monkey Business (1931). "I loved that and ended up playing a duet with Chico on the piano," she said. "He told me, 'I'll play this note and you play these notes when I nod to you.'" Women Love Once would prove to be the first of her six films released in 1931, followed by The Cisco Kid, Husband's Holiday, Susan Lenox - that one with Clark Gable and Greta Garbo - Wicked and Once a Lady. Marilyn Knowlden with Irene Dunne and Allan Jones in 1936's Show Boat. Courtesy Everett Collection She acted with Hepburn for the first time in 1933 in Morning Glory and Cukor's Little Women, and in A Woman Rebels, she got to use a bow and arrow. "Miss Hepburn promised me a dollar if I could hit a bull's-eye," she told Miller. "At the end of the film, she signed an autograph for me that says, 'To Marilyn - Hoping that her archery improves. Affectionately, Katharine Hepburn.' I cherish that to this day,