BIO

Bonita Granville was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1923.   Her father was the vaudevillian and Ziegfeld Follies performer Bernard Granville.

Granville made her film debut for RKO Pathé Pictures, at the age of 9, in 1933.   That year she also appeared in Little Women with Katharine Hepburn.

Three years later, Granville was nominated for an Academy Award for Actress in a Supporting Role, the youngest to receive such an honor up to that date, for her performance in These Three (1936).

Granville had difficulty transitioning as an adult actor and by the mid-1940s her career was on the wane.

In 1947, she married oil millionaire Jack Wrather, a producer of some of her films.   Granville later worked as a producer for her husband, including producing the long-running TV series Lassie (1959-1971).

After a career spanning more than 55 feature films, she made her final screen appearance in 1981.

The couple remained married until Wrather's death in 1984.   They raised four children, including two from his previous marriage. One of their children is Linda Wrather (1949- ) who appeared in several Lassie episodes.

Granville died in 1988 of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California, aged 65.

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

Complete filmography at:

TV SERIES

Lassie