Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner (February 3, 1932 – October 16, 1984) was an American actress who started as a child star. She was born in Canton, Ohio, to attorney William H. Garner and Virginia Craig Garner, who pushed her into the spotlight. She began acting in films in 1938, first appearing in Little Miss Thoroughbred at age six, with smaller roles in several movies during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Garner gained critical praise for playing the young Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre (1943). She went on to star as Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), a performance that helped her win the Academy Juvenile Award at the 1946 Oscars for her 1945 work. She also starred in Junior Miss (1945) and appeared in a number of other 1940s films.
As she grew older, Garner found fewer opportunities in adult roles and moved into stage, radio, and television. Her career on stage included Broadway productions such as Bus Stop, Home Is the Hero, The Royal Family, and The Man, and she toured in plays like The Moon Is Blue.
Garner was married three times: to Richard Hayes (1951–1953), Albert Salmi (1956–1963), and Kenyon Foster Brown (1964–1968). She had one child, Catherine Ann Salmi, who died in 1995. Later in life, Garner worked as a real estate agent and fleet car executive. She died of pancreatic cancer on October 16, 1984, in Woodland Hills, California, at age 52.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:54 (CET).