Sybil Jason | Child actress, 83
Sybil Jason, 83, a cherubic child actress signed by Warner Brothers to compete with Shirley Temple in the 1930s, died Aug. 23 at her home in Northridge, Calif. The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Sybil Jason, 83, a cherubic child actress signed by Warner Brothers to compete with Shirley Temple in the 1930s, died Aug. 23 at her home in Northridge, Calif. The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Temple's wholesome films tugged at America's heart and purse strings during the Depression and earned 20th Century Fox a fortune. Jack Warner, a founder of Warner Brothers, didn't want to miss the trend. After seeing Miss Jason in the 1935 British film Barnacle Bill, he signed her up.
Miss Jason, a brown-haired pixie from South Africa who was five months older than Temple, starred in a string of Warner films that emulated the sensibility of her rival's. She cried at a variety of provocations in Little Big Shot (1935), sang with Al Jolson in The Singing Kid (1936), and starred alongside Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart in The Great O'Malley (1937). But she never drew the crowds Temple did, and Warner Brothers let her contract expire.
Fox then signed her, and she appeared with Temple in The Little Princess (1939) and The Blue Bird (1940). Miss Jason and Temple, who became Shirley Temple Black, remained friends until Miss Jason's death, her daughter said.