Today, May 11th, is the 90th birthday of Margaret Kerry, actress, dancer, entertainer who was cast by Marc Davis as the live-action model for Tinker Bell for Disney’s classic film Peter Pan (1953). Davis, one of Disney’s famed nine-old-men, also cast her as the Red-Headed Mermaid in the Mermaid Lagoon sequence. We here at Animation Scoop want to officially wish her the Happiest of Birthday’s and continued good health!

Next month Margaret is also celebrating her 86th year in show biz. In 1933, when she was four years old, she played a tiny fairy in the Warner Brothers classic film Midsummer Night’s Dream. Next came the Hal Roach Our Gang (Little Rascals) shorts and a series of “atmosphere work” in 37 major films. Her biggest film role was playing Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis’ tap-dancing daughter in RKO’s If You Knew Susie but her heart was with a new invention called television.

She entertained dozens of times on experimental stations W6XYZ (KTLA) and W6XAO (CBS) in Los Angeles. Then TV started growing up. On the now duly-licensed KLAC, Margaret performed and co-hosted with Al Burton on TeleTeen Reporter for four seasons. This over-lapped some of six seasons when she played the daughter on The Charlie Ruggles Show an early ABC network family sit-com. She was a feisty teenager on The Lone Ranger and Helen Scobey and Bess Muggins on The Andy Griffith Show.

It was recording the voice for the Red-Headed Mermaid in Peter Pan that veered her to voice-over work. She is heard in over 600 TV cartoons such as Clutch Cargo, Space Angel, and the New 3 Stooges. There is a wonderful new book about Clutch Cargo and Margaret’s involvement – you can order that here.

Involved in many aspects of animation Margaret was voted onto the ASIFA board where she served for a several years. She is invited all over the U.S. to meet with fans of Tinker Bell and The Andy Griffith Show and travels about ten months out of the year. However, she has found the time to write a fun-to-read book with short entertaining stories about her eight decades in show business.

Tinker Bell Talks! Tales of a Pixie Dusted Life has 180 photos (some quite rare). Several show Margaret before the camera and crew on Disney Stage One. Her web site has more information about her and her book at TinkerBellTalks.com. Her Facebook Page has quite a following which will be sending her Pixie Dust on her 90th Birthday, I’m sure. Happy Birthday, Margaret Kerry!

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.

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