Sybil Jason

Sybil Jason
Born Sybil Jacobson
23 November 1927
Cape Town, South Africa
Died 23 August 2011 (aged 83)[1]
Northridge, California, U.S.
Cause of death
 Natural causes
Occupation Actress, singer
Years active 1931-1940
Spouse(s) Anthony Drake
(m.1947-2005; his death)

Sybil Jason, Sybil Jacobson, (23 November 1927 - 23 August 2011) was a motion-picture child actress who, in the late 1930s, was presented as a rival to Shirley Temple.[2]

Career

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, she began playing the piano at age two and, a year later, began making public appearances doing impersonations of Maurice Chevalier. She was introduced to the theatre-going public of London by way of her uncle, Harry Jacobson, a then-popular London orchestra leader and also pianist to Gracie Fields. The apex of her career came with a concert performance with Frances Day at London's Palace Theatre. Jason's theatre work led to appearances on radio and phonograph records, and a supporting role in the film Barnacle Bill (1935).

Query the Gracie Fields reference. Gracie's main pianist was Harry Parr-Davies, also a song composer. Jacobson was probably the pianist on Gracie's Ray Noble records at HMV in the early 1930s. Research needed

Irving Asher, the head of Warner Bros.' London studio, saw Jason's performance in Barnacle Bill and subsequently arranged for her to make a screen test for the studio. The test was a success, resulting in Warner Bros. signing her to a contract. Her American film debut came as the lead in Little Big Shot (1935), directed by Michael Curtiz and co-starring Glenda Farrell, Robert Armstrong, and Edward Everett Horton. Jason followed this with supporting roles opposite some of Warner Bros. most popular stars, including Kay Francis in I Found Stella Parish (1935), Al Jolson in The Singing Kid (1936), Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart in The Great O'Malley (1937), and again with Kay Francis in Comet Over Broadway (1938). Warners also starred her in The Captain's Kid (1937), and four Vitaphone two-reelers filmed in Technicolor: Changing of the Guard, A Day at Santa Anita, Little Pioneer, and The Littlest Diplomat.

Jason, however, never became the major rival to Shirley Temple that Warner Bros. had hoped for and, her film career ended after playing two supporting roles at 20th-Century Fox. These films — The Little Princess (1939) and The Blue Bird (1940) — were in support of Temple, who became her lifelong friend.

Personal life

Jason married Anthony Drake on 31 December 1947. He died in 2005.[3] Their daughter, Toni, is married to Phillip W. Rossi, producer of The New Price is Right.

Legacy

Filmography

Year Film Role
1935 Barnacle Bill Jill as a child
Dance Band Girl on train
Little Big Shot Gloria "Countess" Gibbs
A Dream Comes True Herself
I Found Stella Parish Gloria Parish
1936 The Singing Kid Sybil Haines
Changing of the Guard Sybil
The Captain's Kid Abigail Prentiss
1937 A Day at Santa Anita Peaches Blackburn
The Great O'Malley Barbara "Babs" Phillips
Little Pioneer Betsy Manning
The Littlest Diplomat Sybil Hardwick
1938 Comet Over Broadway Jacqueline "Jackie" Appleton
1939 Woman Doctor Elsa Graeme
The Little Princess Becky, Servant at Minchin Seminary
1940 The Blue Bird Angela Berlingot

References

  1. ↑ Pershing, Ben (28 August 2011). "Sybil Jason, child star and screen rival to Shirley Temple, dies at 83 - The Washington Post". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  2. ↑ Jason, Sybil (2005). My Fifteen Minutes: An Autobiography of a Child Star of the Golden Era of Hollywood. Bear Manor Media. ISBN 1-59393-023-2.
  3. ↑ Slotnik, Daniel E. (29 August 2011). "Sybil Jason, Cherubic Child Actress, Dies at 83". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 December 2011.

External links