Sybil Jason

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Sybil Jason (born November 23, 1927 in Cape Town , South Africa , † August 23, 2011 in Northridge , California ) was an American actress .

Life

Childhood and artistic beginnings

Jason was born Sybil Jacobson in Cape Town, where her father owned a shoe shop . When Jason was two years old, her family moved to the UK . Jason's mother was in poor health; her upbringing was therefore mainly taken over by her older sister Anita. This promoted the artistic inclinations and talent of Jasons; she learned to play the piano , sing and dance; when she was less than five years old, she acted out stars like Greta Garbo , Maurice Chevalier , Jeanette MacDonald and Jimmy Durante .

Jason's uncle, the band leader and pianist Harry Jacobson , who had also settled in Great Britain, was known there as "The Crooning Pianist". He has performed with British dance orchestras, including the Savoy Orpheans and the Ray Noble 's Orchestra . He was also the musical accompanist for the singer Gracie Fields . He invited Sybil Jason and her sister Anita to live with him and his wife in London . Harry Jaconson taught Jason a few songs that she performed in front of guests. The guest singer Frances Day gave Jason her first appearance at a benefit concert at the London Palladium .

Jason then received her first film role as a child actress in the British drama Barnacle Bill (1935), with Archie Pitt , Fields 'husband, in the lead role, through Gracie Fields' agency . Irving Asher , head of the Warner Brothers office in London , then sent screen tests to Jack Warner in Hollywood . Then Jason was hired by Warner Brothers to Hollywood.

Child star in Hollywood

Jason was specifically built up by Warner Bros as an answer and counterpart to Shirley Temple , the child star under contract with 20th Century Fox . Jason's first Warner Bros film was Little Big Shot (1935), a film based on a film by Damon Runyon . Jason played an orphan girl who won the hearts of two hardened impostors ( Robert Armstrong and Edward Everett Horton ). Jason had some very good dance scenes and sang the theme song Rolling in Money . Her next film role was as the daughter of Kay Francis in the romantic drama I Found Stella Parrish (1935).

Her best acting performances include her role as Sybil Haines in the film musical The Singing Kid (1936). Jason played an orphan girl again, but this time her role was more cheerful than in Little Big Shot . Jason sang the song You're the Cure for What Ails Me , along with Al Jolson in the latter's last leading role. In the drama The Great O'Malley (1937), Jason was named second in the opening credits after Pat O'Brien ; she played Barbara "Babs" Phillips, the physically challenged film daughter of Humphrey Bogart .

In 1938 she played again with Kay Francis, whose career was now in decline, together in the drama Comet Over Broadway , again as Francis' daughter. Warner Bros then decided not to renew Jason's contract. Jason then made the film Woman Doctor (1939) for the film company Republic Pictures .

She was then signed by 20th Century Fox; she was cast alongside Shirley Temple as the second child star in two films for the second lead role. In the film comedy The Little Princess (1939), Jason played Becky, a young maid and dishwashing girl who worked hard at a Victorian girls' school , with a Cockney accent . Jason had rehearsed her role with Dame Wendy Hiller , who acted as her acting coach. In her last film, The Blue Bird (1940), she played a young girl who cannot walk but is healed at the end of the film. At the instigation of Shirley Temple's mother, however, Jason's role was cut significantly; Temple's mother feared for her daughter's popularity. Temple and Jason did not see themselves as competitors, however. A lifelong friendship developed from their mutual collaboration.

Next life

Jason quit filming at the age of thirteen. Jason returned to South Africa; there she attended school. During the Second World War she lived in South Africa. After the war she returned to the United States. Jason tried to resume her acting career; she played theater in California. During rehearsals for the musical The Wizard of Oz , she met the writer and radio writer Anthony Drake († 2005). Jason and Drake married in 1947. The marriage had a daughter, Toni Drake-Rossi. Jason later worked as an acting teacher. She wrote the libretti for two musicals, Garden Party and Garage Sale . In 2004 she published her memoir under the title My 15 Minutes: An Autobiography of a Child Star of the Golden Era of Hollywood .

Sybil Jason died at her home in Northridge, California, at the age of 83, of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease .

Filmography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Sybil Jason dies at 83  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) - obituary in: Variety from August 30, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.variety.com
  2. ↑ a b c d e Sybil Jason obituary - Obituary in: The Guardian, September 1, 2011
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Sybil Jason - Obituary in: The Daily Telegraph, August 29, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Jason, Sybil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jacobson, Sybil (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Cape Town , South Africa
DATE OF DEATH 23 August 2011
Place of death Northridge , California , United States