Baby Peggy

Acting

Baby Peggy

Born 1918-10-29 · San Diego, California, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Diana Serra Cary (born Peggy-Jean Montgomery, October 29, 1918 – February 24, 2020), known as Baby Peggy, was an American child film actress, vaudevillian, author and silent film historian. At the time of her death, she was one of the last living film stars of the Silent Era of Hollywood. Montgomery, as she then was, was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent film era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie. Between 1921 and 1923 she made over 150 short films for the Century Film Corporation. In 1922 she received over 1.2 million fan letters, and by 1924 she had been dubbed The Million Dollar Baby for her $1.5 million annual salary ($22 million in 2018). Despite her childhood fame and wealth, she found herself poor and working as an extra by the 1930s. Having an interest in both writing and history since her youth, Montgomery found a second career as an author and silent film historian in her later years under the name Diana Serra Cary. She was the author of several books including her historical novel, The Drowning of the Moon, and was an advocate for child actors' rights. Cary died at her home in Gustine, California at the age of 101.

Acting credits

Showbiz Kids poster
6.8

A documentary chronicling the shared experiences of prominent former child stars and the personal and professional price of fame and failure on a child.

Showbiz Kids

2020

No artwork available
8.0

Baby Peggy, one of the biggest child stars in movie history, does not disappoint in this charming silent comedy, even though it only exists in fragmentary form. Through the short, she interacts with a number of animals, especially a goose she wants to cook.

Peggy, Behave!

1922

Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room poster
6.6

Documentary about an extraordinary lady, Diana Serra Cary (born Peggy-Jean Montgomery). In the early 1920s she was one of Hollywood's first major child stars, Baby Peggy.

Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room

2012

Sweetie poster
7.0

A Baby Peggy two-reeler

Sweetie

1923

True Confession poster
6.1

A writer takes a job as a secretary because her scrupulous husband isn't bringing in the dough as an attorney. When her new employer is murdered, she can't seem to make up her mind as to whether she "dunnit" or not.

True Confession

1937

Hollywood poster
9.0

Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...

Hollywood

1923

Ah, Wilderness! poster
6.6

At the turn of the century, a young man graduates high school and realizes the joys and sorrows of growing up, with some loving help and guidance from his wise father. A tender, coming-of-age story, with a wonderful look at a long-gone, but fondly remembered, small town America.

Ah, Wilderness!

1935

No artwork available
8.0

Baby Peggy short – AKA Too Many Lovers Our Pet tell the story of little girl Baby Peggy who warding off thieves. This short film is one of the titles from 1920s silent film series “Baby Peggy” that played by Diana Serra Cary, the last living silent film star. She was the one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie . Most of Cary's “Baby Peggy” films including Our Pet had been lost when the Century Studios burned down in 1926. In September 2016, Japanese silent film narrator (Benshi) and silent film collector Ichiro Kataoka discovered the 9.5 mm print of this long lost film in Japan and brought it back to the screen with his Benshi performance.

Our Pet

1924

Playmates poster
9.0

Baby Peggy and Brownie the Dog star in this adorable short.

Playmates

1921

Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films poster
9.0

Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).

Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films

2011

Circus Clowns poster
7.0

Baby Peggy is joined by her star-making partner, Brownie the Wonder Dog and is in a circus as a junior clown.

Circus Clowns

1922

Having Wonderful Time poster
4.9

Teddy Shaw, a bored New York office girl, goes to a camp in the Catskill Mountains for rest and finds Chick Kirkland.

Having Wonderful Time

1938

Clara Bow: Discovering the "It" Girl poster
8.3

Clara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl features scenes from 25 of her films, as well as interviews with family members and acquaintances.

Clara Bow: Discovering the "It" Girl

1999

Hollywood’s Children poster
9.0

A documentary about child actors, since the beginning of motion pictures (narrated by Roddy McDowell).

Hollywood’s Children

1982

Souls at Sea poster
6.5

Michael 'Nuggin' Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave trade on the high seas during 1842.

Souls at Sea

1937

Life in Hollywood poster
NR

A 1927 silent-era series of Hollywood studio tours, these short subjects go behind the scenes at major studios and showcase famous stars, directors, and landmarks of the movie capital.

Life in Hollywood

1927

No artwork available
10.0

A 1921 American silent short film directed by Fred Hibbard for Century Film Company and starring Baby Peggy and Brownie the dog. It was rediscovered in Switzerland in 2010.

Brownie's Little Venus

1921

When We Were Young: Growing Up on the Silver Screen poster
NR

A documentary about the careers of child stars of the '40s in Hollywood, featuring movie clips with Shirley Temple, Margaret O'Brien, and numerous others along with interviews.

When We Were Young: Growing Up on the Silver Screen

1989

Captain January poster
6.8

During a tempestuous storm, a lighthouse keeper finds an infant girl who washes ashore tied to some wreckage. He adopts her and they become inseparable. Eventually her real family finds her and wants her to live with them.

Captain January

1924

Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess poster
7.5

A documentary looking at the life, films, and troubled times of America's first sex symbol, screen actress Clara Bow, featuring interviews and archive footage. It takes a look at why she is considered the 'Lost Screen Goddess'.

Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess

2012

No artwork available
9.0

A feisty homeless orphan girl struggles with winter cold and hunger.

Such Is Life

1924

No artwork available
9.0

The adventures of Baby Peggy in her own house.

The Little Rascal

1922

The Kid Reporter poster
7.0

The 'secretary' of a busy newspaperman is revealed to be a cherubic small child, Baby Peggy. When a rich woman's pearl necklace is stolen, Baby Peggy's employer promises to make the reporter who cracks the case Editor-in-Chief. The little girl seizes the opportunity, and - several disguises and chases later, with the grudging aid of the office-boy - duly returns with the jewels to achieve promotion, with all the adults scurrying to serve her.

The Kid Reporter

1923

Helen's Babies poster
5.9

A young man, who has vowed never to marry and doesn't particularly like children, is left in charge of his two very young nieces. At first they drive him to distraction, but then he begins to warm to them, and also to a beautiful young local girl.

Helen's Babies

1924

Behind the camera