Cora Sue Collins

{{Short description|American child actress (1927–2025)|bot=PearBOT 5}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Cora Sue Collins

| image = Cora-Sue-Collins-1931.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Collins in 1931

| birth_date = {{birth date|1927|4|19}}

| birth_place = Beckley, West Virginia, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2025|4|27|1927|4|19}}

| death_place = Beverly Hills, California, U.S.

| occupation = Child actress

| years active = 1932–1945

| known_for = The Scarlet Letter
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Ivan Stauffer|1943|1944|end=div}}
{{marriage||1946|1947|end=div}}
{{marriage|James McKay
|1949|1955|end=div}}
{{marriage|James Morgan Cox|1960|1969|end=div}}
{{marriage|Harry Nace|1969|2002|end=died}}

}}

| children = 3

}}

Cora Susan Collins (April 19, 1927 – April 27, 2025) was an American child actress who appeared in films during the Golden Years of Hollywood. Although she did not make the transition to a film career in adulthood, she appeared in 47 films in total.

Early life and career

Cora Susan Collins was born on April 19, 1927, in Beckley, West Virginia. She later moved to Los Angeles, California, along with her mother and older sister.{{cite web | url=http://www.cinephiled.com/child-star-cora-sue-collins-talks-garbo-garland-day-jean-harlow-came-birthday-party/ | title=Child Star Cora Sue Collins Talks Garbo, Garland, and the Day Jean Harlow Came to Her Birthday Party| publisher=Cinephiled.com| date=April 19, 2015 | access-date=August 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517042545/http://www.cinephiled.com/child-star-cora-sue-collins-talks-garbo-garland-day-jean-harlow-came-birthday-party/|archive-date=May 17, 2021}} Collins made her acting debut in The Unexpected Father in 1932 at the age of five. She starred opposite Slim Summerville and ZaSu Pitts, playing Summerville's adoptive daughter.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19350812&id=oY9RAAAAIBAJ&pg=4000,5021338|title=Tiny actress called genius|publisher=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=August 12, 1935|access-date=April 10, 2014}}{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19320331&id=LulNAAAAIBAJ&pg=7453,5983939|title=She cries her way into movies|publisher=The Free Lance-Star|date=March 31, 1932|access-date=April 10, 2014}} She appeared in the American romantic drama Smilin' Through (1932), starred Norma Shearer, Fredric March, and Leslie Howard. It was a remake of a silent film of the same name made a decade earlier, and Collins had a minor role as Shearer's character Kathleen Wayne as a young girl. Smilin' Through was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1932, but did not win. In total, Collins appeared in five motion pictures in 1932, mainly as a supporting cast member. The films were made by different studios, such as MGM, Paramount, and Universal.

In 1933, Collins' career continued to consist mostly of playing either the leading lady's daughter, or the leading lady herself in a flashback scene. For instance in Torch Singer, she played Claudette Colbert's daughter Sally Trent, age five. (Because both mother and daughter had the same name in the film, she is often mistakenly identified as playing Colbert as a child, but Colbert’s character never appears as a child in the film.) Another example is when she was cast as Queen Christina as a child in the MGM biographical film of the same name starring Greta Garbo. Queen Christina was well-received by film critics at the time. She had a small part as the daughter of a farmer in The Prizefighter and the Lady, for which its main writer Frances Marion was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1934|title=The 6th Academy Awards (1934) Nominees and Winners|accessdate=May 21, 2019|work=oscars.org}}

In 1934, Collins had a supporting role in the horror film Black Moon. She featured in Colleen Moore's last film, The Scarlet Letter. She was cast as William Powell and Myrna Loy's characters' daughter Dorothy in Evelyn Prentice, which despite its leads was not part of The Thin Man franchise. In The World Accuses she had a rare billing in the movie poster. Produced by the small studio Chesterfield Pictures, the film also features fellow child actor Dickie Moore, whom she would appear with later that year in Little Men. In the 1980s, Moore interviewed her among many other child actors for his book Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: But Don't Have Sex Or Take the Car. She played a princess in John Farrow's 21-minute MGM short The Spectacle Maker. It was Farrow's directorial debut and was filmed in full three-strip Technicolor.{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|422104502}} |last1=King |first1=Susan |title=Movies; ON DVD; A 'Treasure Island' that's well worth digging up |work=Los Angeles Times |date=15 October 2006 |page=E.10 }} Collins' reported salary in 1934 was $250 per week ({{Inflation|US|250|1934|fmt=eq}}).{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/187355802|title=Cora Sue Collins 7, gets £250 a week deal|publisher=The Minneapolis Star|date=November 28, 1934|access-date=August 24, 2019|pages=10}}

Collins was initially cast as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), but her role was changed to Amy Lawrence because she was considered to be too tall for Tommy Kelly. She said that writer Harry Ruskin, 33 years her senior, tried to force her to have sex with him in exchange for a good role at age 15. She refused and told Louis B. Mayer about what had happened, who was nonchalant and dismissive about it.{{cite web|url=https://www.image.ie/self/cora-sue-collins-my-life-162334|title=Cora Sue Collins|publisher=Image|date=September 19, 2020|access-date=October 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414070005/https://www.image.ie/self/cora-sue-collins-my-life-162334 |archive-date=April 14, 2021}} A rare leading role for Collins was in the 1945 Columbia Pictures drama Youth on Trial, in which she played the juvenile delinquent daughter of a court judge. Her last movie appearance was in 1945, after which she retired from show business at the age of 18.

Personal life and death

Around 1944, Collins married Ivan Stauffer, a wealthy rancher from Nevada.{{cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/nevada/reno/nevada-state-journal/1948/03-09/page-7?tag=cora+sue+collins&rtserp=tags/?pep=cora-sue-collins&ndt=by&py=1940&pey=1949|title=Winchell on Broadway|publisher=Nevada State Journal|date=March 9, 1948|access-date=June 27, 2016|pages=7}}{{cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/artist/cora-sue-collins-p14219|title=Cora Sue Collins|publisher=Allmovie|access-date=November 15, 2013}} In 1960, robbers stole two mink coats from her home while she was on vacation.{{cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/indiana/valparaiso/valparaiso-vidette-messenger/1960/09-17/page-4?tag=cora+sue+collins&rtserp=tags/?pep=cora-sue-collins&ndt=by&py=1960&pey=1969|title=Behind the Scenes in Hollywood|publisher=Valparaiso Vidette Messenger|date=September 17, 1960|access-date=June 27, 2016 | pages=4}} Around 1961, she married James Morgan Cox.{{cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/amarillo/amarillo-daily-news/1964/03-06/page-49?tag=cora+sue+collins&rtserp=tags/?pep=cora-sue-collins&ndt=by&py=1960&pey=1969|title=Hollywood Mailbag|publisher=Amarillo Daily News|date=March 6, 1964|access-date=June 27, 2016|author=Connolly, Mike | pages=49}} In a 1996 article, Collins was referred to as Susie Nace and lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Her husband at the time was theatre owner Harry Nace,{{cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/maryland/frederick/news/1996/09-09/page-7?tag=cora+sue+collins&rtserp=tags/?pep=cora-sue-collins&ndt=by&py=1990&pey=1999|title=Millionaires, movie stars and heads of states tote Vuitton|publisher=The Frederick-News Post|date=September 9, 1996|access-date=June 27, 2016|pages=7}} who died in June 2002 at the age of 87.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=20020609&id=VyALAAAAIBAJ&pg=4447,994753&hl=sv|title=Phoenix theater pioneer dies|publisher=The Daily Courier|date=June 9, 2002 |access-date=June 27, 2016|pages=5A}} Having appeared with Greta Garbo in two films, Collins and Garbo remained in contact until Garbo's death in 1990.

Collins had three children with husband James McKay. Collins died from complications of a stroke at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on April 27, 2025, at the age of 98.{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/cora-sue-collins-dead-child-actress-mgm-1236202858/|title=Cora Sue Collins, Celebrated Child Actress at MGM in the 1930s, Dies at 98|publisher=The Hollywood Reporter|date=April 28, 2025|accessdate=April 28, 2025}}

Filmography

File:Scarlet Letter lobby card.jpg (1934)]]

class="wikitable"
style="background:#B0C4DE;" \| Year !style="background:#B0C4DE;" \| Title !style="background:#B0C4DE;" \| Role !style="background:#B0C4DE;" \| Notes
rowspan=5\|1932 \|The Unexpected Father \|Pudge \|
The Strange Case of Clara Deane \|Nancy at age 4 \|
Smilin' Through \|Young Kathleen \|
Silver Dollar \|Maryanne Martin, as a Girl \|
They Just Had to Get Married \|Rosalie \|
rowspan=7\|1933 \|Picture Snatcher \|Jerry's little girl \|
Jennie Gerhardt \|Vesta at age 6 \|Uncredited
Torch Singer \|Sally at age 5 \|
The Prizefighter and the Lady \|Farmer's daughter \|Uncredited
The Sin of Nora Moran \|Nora Moran, as a child \|
Queen Christina \|Queen Christina, as a child \|Uncredited
''New Deal Rhythm \|Little girl \|Short, uncredited
rowspan=8\|1934 \|Black Moon \|Nancy Lane \|
Treasure Island \|Young girl at the inn \|Uncredited
The Scarlet Letter \|Pearl \|
The Spectacle Maker \|The little princess \|Short
Caravan \|Latzi, as a child \|Uncredited
Evelyn Prentice \|Dorothy Prentice \|
The World Accuses \|Pat Collins \|
Little Men \|Daisy \|
rowspan=9\|1935 \|Naughty Marietta \|Felice \|
Public Hero No. 1 \|Little girl \|Uncredited
Mad Love \|Gogol's Lame child patient \|Uncredited
Anna Karenina \|Tania \|
The Dark Angel \|Kitty, as a child \|
Two Sinners \|Sally Pym \|
Harmony Lane \|Marian Foster \|
Mary Burns, Fugitive \|Little girl \|Uncredited
Magnificent Obsession \|Ruth \|
rowspan=3\|1936 \|The Harvester \|Naomi Jameson \|
Devil's Squadron \|Mary \|
Three Married Men \|Sue Cary \|
1938 \|The Adventures of Tom Sawyer \|Amy Lawrence \|
1939 \|Stop, Look and Love \|Dora Haller \|
1940 \|All This, and Heaven Too \|Louise de Rham \|Uncredited
1941 \|Blood and Sand \|Encarnacion, as a child \|Uncredited
rowspan=2\|1942 \|Get Hep to Love \|Elaine Sterling \|
Johnny Doughboy \|Herself \|
rowspan=3\|1945 \|Youth on Trial \|Cam Chandler \|
Roughly Speaking \|Elinor Randall, as a girl \|Uncredited
Week-End at the Waldorf \|Jane Rand \|

class="wikitable"

style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year

!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title

!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role

!style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes

rowspan=5|1932

|The Unexpected Father

|Pudge

The Strange Case of Clara Deane

|Nancy at age 4

Smilin' Through

|Young Kathleen