Diana Serra Cary

Diana Serra Cary
Baby Peggy, circa 1922
Born	Peggy-Jean Montgomery (1918-10-29) October 29, 1918 (age 98) San Diego, California, U.S.
Other names	Baby Peggy Baby Peggy Montgomery Peggy Montgomery Peggy-Jean Montgomery
Education	Lawlor Professional School Fairfax High School
Occupation	Actress, author, historian
Years active	1921–1938
Spouse(s)	Gordon Ayres (m. 1938; div. 1948) Bob Cary (m. 1954; d. 2001)
Children	1

Diana Serra Cary (born October 29, 1918), known as Baby Peggy, is an American former child actress, author and historian. Although other child actors from the time are still living, she is the last living film star of the silent era.

Diana Serra Cary was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie. Between 1921 and 1923 she made over 150 shorts for Century Studios. 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 a year salary. 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, Cary found a second career as an author and silent film historian in her later years under the name Diana Serra Cary. She is the author of several books and has become an advocate for child actors' rights.

Cary was born on October 29, 1918, in San Diego, California, as Peggy-Jean Montgomery, the second daughter of Marian (née Baxter) and Jack Montgomery. While some sources incorrectly give her birth name as Margaret, Cary herself, in her autobiography, notes that she was indeed born as Peggy-Jean. She further explains that although the Roman Catholic nuns at her birth hospital recommended the name Margaret, her parents rejected the suggestion. Her older sister, called Louise or, occasionally, Jackie, was legally named Jack-Louise.

Baby Peggy was "discovered" at the age of 19 months, when she visited Century Studios on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood with her mother and a film-extra friend. The Montgomery family was already somewhat involved in the motion picture industry: Her father, Jack, a former cowboy and park ranger, had done work as a stuntman and stand-in for Tom Mix in a number of his cowboy movies. Impressed by Peggy's well-behaved demeanor and willingness to follow directions from her father, director Fred Fishback hired her to appear in a series of short films with Century's canine star, Brownie the Wonder Dog. The first film, Playmates in 1921, was a success, and Peggy was signed to a long-term contract with Century.