In the 1940s, Margaret O’Brien was one of the country’s most popular movie stars. She made her debut in 1942 at age 5 in “Journey for Margaret,” playing an English war orphan. (It will be shown in October on TNT in a child actor retrospective.) In 1944, she won an Oscar as “Outstanding Child Actress” for her role in “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Now 60, she performs for TV and regional theater.
Q. Do you ever find it annoying that you’re invariably asked about your early career?
A. No, because some of the pictures turned out to be classics and so, of course, people will go back to that. And I have good memories of those years. It was something I wanted to do. My mother never made me do it.
Q. What are your favorite movies?
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A. I loved doing “Little Women,” because I had read the book. And “Journey for Margaret” because that was my first. But some of my favorite roles were in the era of live television, on “Playhouse 90” and “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.” And I did a lot of stage work in the Chicago area when I was 10 and 11 and at Drury Lane and Pheasant Run. And I was in the national company of “A Thousand Clowns,” so being here is like a homecoming.
Q. Talk about your career today.
A. I’m on the road about six months a year. I do theater and television and three cruise lectures a year for the Holland-America Line where I talk about the movies. I’ve also started designing jewelry, which I display after the show I’m doing.
O’Brien opens Friday in “Arsenic and Old Lace” at Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Rd., Munster, Ind., 30 minutes from the Loop. Call 219-836-0422.