Born into a show-biz family, Bonita Granville first appeared onstage at the age of 3 and began making films at 9. As a child actress she was frequently cast as a mean, spiteful, naughty little girl; examples include These Three (1936), in which she played a mischievous girl spreading malicious lies about her teachers (and for which, at the age of 13, she received a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination), and Maid of Salem (1937), in which she lead a hysterical group of village girls as accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. As a teen she also played "nicer" girls, as in the title role in the series of four detective-reporter Nancy Drew movies, as well as a blond, blue-eyed Aryan Nazi "ideal youth" in the huge hit Hitler's Children (1943). She later gained standard leading lady roles before retiring from the screen in the '50s. Bonita Granville married a millionaire in 1947 and subsequently became a businesswoman as well as the producer of the TV series Lassie.
by Rovi
biography
