Anita Louise

An actress from the age of 6, Anita appeared with Walter Hampden in the Broadway production of Peter Ibbetson. As a juvenile actor, Anita used the name Louise Fremault and made her film debut at 9 in the film The Sixth Commandment (1924).

She continued to make films as a child actor, and in 1929, Anita dropped her "Fremault" surname, billing herself by her first and second names only.

She appeared with Lew Ayres in two films - Heaven on Earth (1931), made at Universal and These Glamour Girls (1939) at MGM.

Unlike many child actors, her film career continued as a teenager, and as a blue-eyed blonde, Anita became a star in Warner Brothers costume dramas such as Madame Du Barry (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), and Marie Antoinette (1938). Anita complained that her looks often interfered with her chances to obtain serious roles.

She appeared in three Oscar Best Picture nominees: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) and Anthony Adverse (1936).

Auditioned and screen-tested for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), which went to Vivien Leigh.

With her ethereal beauty, she continued to appear in ingénue roles into the 1940s as she played girlfriends, sisters, and daughters.

By 1940, Anita was only in her mid 20s, but her career had turned to 'B' movies, and her time on the big screen ended with the rehashed Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1947) in 1947.

Anita was also the substitute host of The Loretta Young Show (1953) when Loretta Young was recuperating from surgery.

In 1956, Anita was cast as Johnny Washbrook's mother, Nell McLaughin, on the Television series My Friend Flicka (1955), the story of a boy and his black horse.

Other shows Anita hosted included Theater of Time (1957) and Spotlight Playhouse (1958).

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Anita is name-dropped in the Depression-era dance marathon movie They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), which is set in 1932. In one segment, Michael Sarrazin''s character Robert tells his partner Jane Fonda that he saw a movie starring Anita and Richard Cromwell wherein she goes blind and dies of a brain tumor. In truth, Anita and Cromwell did appear in two movies but they were post-1932 -- Most Precious Thing in Life (1934) and The Villain Still Pursued Her (1940). In neither of these two films, or in any other film Anita appeared in, did she ever go blind and die of a brain tumor. The film Dark Victory (1939), DOES have Bette Davis going blind and dying of a brain tumor with George Brent by her side, but it too was released much later than 1932.

On August 21, 2018, she was honored with a day of her film work during the TCM Summer Under The Stars.