Beautiful still in her 80s, Sybil Jason was a person who was full of fun and found happiness wherever she was, whatever she did. She was in THE SINGING KID with the great Al Jolson, singing and dancing and keeping the audience's eyes on HER--a tough job when you were in front of a camera with Jolie! She is probably best remembered as the little Cockney servant girl in THE LITTLE PRINCESS with Shirley Temple. So talented was Sybil and Shirley's mother was said to have pulled strings to have her role in THE BLUEBIRD (1940) cut and cut until most of it lay on the cutting room floor. Sybil's career was brief--from 1935 to 1940--cut short by WWII. She had gone back to South Africa to visit relatives just before the war broke out in earnest--and ended up spending 5 years there. When the war ended, she was no longer a "child star" and Hollywood--as it has done so often--was not interested in helping her continue her career. She spent the rest of her life working for chariitable causes in Holllywood, loved and admired by everyone who knew her. Rest in peace, old friend!
(http://i56.tinypic.com/iqyjjd.jpg) (http://i51.tinypic.com/2jdgo5j.jpg)
One more thing I meant to mention--Sybil was a friend of our "Uncle Forry" Ackerman, and the two of them had a funny thing they'd do. When Sybil did conventions in the Los Angeles area, Forry would often attend and he'd wait 'til she didn't have too many at her table and he'd walk up and strike a pose and start singing, "You're the Cure For What Ails Me!", a song she did with Jolson (many of you will know what a huge Jolson fan Forry was!). And Sybil would come out from behind the table and she and Forry would finish the song together, as she did it with Jolson decades before. She got a kick out of Forry, and he sure had a great time singing with her!
She sounds like a beautiful person Robert.
I really like hearing these stories of the too short careers and whatever happened to child stars and character actors. Thanks for the info Robert. 80 years old and doing charity work. Good lady.
coolness
As a friend of Forry she had a monster kid connection to us all. A very nice tribute.
Rob