Molly O'Day

Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, she was the youngest of 11 children of Judge Thomas Francis Patrick Noonan and his wife, Hannah Kelly, a Metropolitan Opera singer. After their father's death, O'Day and her two sisters moved to Hollywood. Besides O'Neil, another sister, Isabelle, also acted in films.{{cite book|last1=Villecco|first1=Tony|title=Silent Stars Speak: Interviews with Twelve Cinema Pioneers|date=2001|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-8209-2|page=122|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vSh_uXgkXxgC&q=%22Sally+O%27Neil%22&pg=PA122|accessdate=October 19, 2016|language=en}}

O'Day's first appearance was in the Laurel and Hardy short 45 Minutes from Hollywood in 1926. She also appeared in Hal Roach's Our Gang series.

Only 16, she defeated 2,000 contenders in an audition for the tough girl heroine in the 1927 prizefighter movie The Patent Leather Kid.

Like O'Neil in 1926, O'Day became one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1928.{{cite news|last1=Thomas|first1=Dan|title=The Tough Job of Being a Prophet in Hollywood|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7081803/the_edwardsville_intelligencer/|work=The Edwardsville Intelligencer|date=July 11, 1934|location=Illinois, Edwardsville|page=5}} Also in 1928, she had surgery to "remove several pounds of flesh from her hips and legs."{{cite news|title=Pound of Flesh|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7086763/oakland_tribune/|work=Oakland Tribune|agency=Associated Press|date=September 3, 1928|location=California, Oakland|page=1|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = October 19, 2016}} {{Open access}} An Associated Press news story reported: "The actress has been gaining weight steadily for the last year and although under contract to a film studio has been idle. Her excessive weight was the cause of her lack of work, Miss O'Day said, and after other flesh reducing methods failed she decided on the surgeon's knife as the final resort."

After appearing in a few dozen films in the 1930s she retired.

O'Day married actor Jack Durant in 1934 in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.{{cite news|title=Molly O'Day, Screen Player, Weds Actor|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7086796/oakland_tribune/|work=Oakland Tribune|agency=Associated Press|date=December 17, 1937|location=California, Oakland|page=10|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = October 19, 2016}} {{Open access}} They divorced July 10, 1951, in Los Angeles, California.{{cite magazine|title=Divorces|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fh8EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Molly+O%27Day%22+actress&pg=PA48|accessdate=October 19, 2016|magazine=Billboard|date=July 28, 1951|page=48}} They had 4 children together.

O'Day died in Avila Beach, California, one day before her 89th birthday.{{Citation needed |date=August 2022}}

File:Molly O'Day motion728.jpg

O'Day has a star at 1708 Vine Street in the Motion Pictures category on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was dedicated February 8, 1960.{{cite web|title=Molly O'Day|url=http://www.walkoffame.com/molly-oday|website=Hollywood Walk of Fame|accessdate=October 19, 2016}}

File:Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come Richard Barthelmess Molly O'Day 1928.jpg in The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1928)]]

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• {{IMDb name|id=0640603}}
• [http://hwof.com/star/motion-pictures/molly-o-day/1593 Hollywood Walk of Fame webpage]
• [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-oct-21-mn-34777-story.html Obituary in the L.A. Times]
• [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/8590/molly-oday Molly O'Day] at Virtual History

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Category:1909 births

Category:1998 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:American film actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:Actresses from Bayonne, New Jersey

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