Nancy Kelly

Nancy Kelly
Publicity photograph (1955)
Born	(1921-03-25)March 25, 1921 Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 2, 1995(1995-01-02) (aged 73) Bel Air, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1926–1977
Notable work	Jesse James, One Night In The Tropics, Tarzan's Desert Mystery, The Bad Seed
Spouse(s)	Edmond O'Brien (m.1941–1942; divorced) Fred Jackman, Jr. (m.1946–1950; divorced) Warren Caro (m.1955–1968; divorced) 1 child
Children	Kelly Lurie Caro (b. 1957)

Nancy Kelly (March 25, 1921 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The March of Time and became a movie leading lady in the late 1930s, while still in her teens. She made 36 movies between 1926 and 1977, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone later that same year. She had her greatest success in a character role, the suicidal mother in the The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for the 1955 stage production and an Academy Award nomination for the 1956 film adaptation.

Of Irish descent, Kelly was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, into a theatrical family. Her mother was silent film actress Nan Kelly, who coached her and managed her career. As a child actress, Kelly appeared in 52 films made on the East Coast by the age of 17. Her younger brother was actor Jack Kelly, most noted for playing the lead alongside James Garner or Roger Moore from 1957 to 1962 in the television series Maverick.

As a child model, her image had appeared in so many different advertisements by the time she was nine years old that Film Daily commented, "Nancy has been referred to as 'the most photographed child in America,' largely because of her commercial posing."

Kelly worked extensively in radio in her adolescent years. She played Dorothy Gale in a 1933–34 radio show, The Wizard of Oz, based on the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Kelly was the first ingenue on CBS Radio's The March of Time series, with a vocal versatility that made it possible for her to portray male parts as well as female. She also portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt.