SYBIL JASON - Child Star of the 1930s

Sybil Jason, a leading child actress in the 1930s, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Northridge, California, on August 23, 2011.  She was 83.  She was born Sybil Jacobson in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 23, 1929.  She learned to play the piano by the age of 2, and was soon performing before audiences.  She moved to England as a child, where she appeared regularly at nightclubs in London.  She made her film debut in 1935’s “Barnacle Bill”, and was subsequently signed to a Hollywood contract with Warner Bros., as a possible rival to Shirley Temple.  She was featured in the films “Little Big Shot” (1935), “I Found Stella Parish” (1935), “The Singing Kid” (1936) with Al Jolson, “The Great O’Malley” (1937) with Pat O’ Brien and Humphrey Bogart, and “Comet Over Broadway” (1938).  Warner declined to renew her contract and her final films were at 20th-Century Fox in supporting roles to Shirley Temple.  She was Becky in 1939’s “The Little Princess” and was Angela Berlingot in the 1940 fantasy “The Blue Bird”. Jason penned her autobiography, “My Fifteen Minutes: An Autobiography of a Child Star of the Golden Era of Hollywood”, in 2005.