European Film Star Postcards: Sally O'Neill

25 August 2023

Sally O'Neill

Cute and petite American actress Sally O'Neill (1908-1968) acted in almost 50 films between the mid-1920s and the mid-1930s. Her starring role in The Brat, directed by John Ford, was a highlight of her career. She also starred in several Broadway productions.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 530. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn Film S.A.I.

Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 234. Photo: Hal Phyfe / Fox-Film.

Flashy fun girls

"Cute-as-a-button" and diminutive in size, Sally O'Neil (sometimes billed as Sally O'Neill), was born in 1908 in Bayonne, New Jersey. She was one of 11 children born to a Superior Court Judge, Thomas Francis Patrick Noonan, and his wife, Hannah Kelly, a one-time singer with the Metropolitan Opera.

Another sister would also become a well-known actress, Molly O'Day. Sally was educated in a convent and started in Vaudeville where she was billed as "Chotsie Noonan" (her real name was Virginia Louise Concepta Noonan).

She started in silent films at age 17 and found a penchant for playing unassuming street orphans along the lines of Mary Pickford in lightweight comedies, and later as flashy fun girls in the Clara Bow mould.

Sally found stardom with her second film Sally, Irene and Mary (Edmund Goulding, 1925) co-starring Constance Bennett and Joan Crawford playing a naive chorus girl.

As a result, she (as would sister Molly) was named a Wampas Baby Star in 1926.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 252a.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no, 252.

A popular but brief MGM commodity

Memorable are Sally O'Neill's starring roles in Slide, Kelly, Slide (Edward Sedgwick, 1927) with William Haines, The Lovelorn (John P. McCarthy, 1927) also with Molly O'Day, and Broadway Scandals (George Archainbaud, 1929) with Jack Egan.

She also played leads in Jazz Heaven (Melville Brown, 1929) with Johnny Mack Brown, and Girl of the Port (Bert Glennon, 1930). She also played supporting parts in the Buster Keaton comedy Battling Butler (Buster Keaton, 1926) and D.W Griffith's The Battle of the Sexes (1928). She would be a popular but brief MGM commodity.

Such films as The Callahans and the Murphys (George W. Hill, 1927) and Frisco Sally Levy (William Beaudine, 1927) did not suit her well and soon her star diminished. Possessing a strong New Jersey accent and developing a severe case of stage fright did not help things either as sound films were now the rage.

Despite the promising title role in Kathleen Mouverneen (Albert Ray, 1930) and a strong lead in the pre-Code film The Brat (John Ford, 1931), which she had done on Broadway, she quickly faded from view. Sally returned to the stage and performed in USO tours until retiring in the 1950s.

Divorced from her first husband, James Kenaston, in 1952, Sally married businessman Stewart S. Battles, former head of Midwest Manufacturing Co., a year later. They divorced in 1957, but would remarry. Sally O'Neill died of pneumonia in 1968 in Galesburg, Illinois. She was only 59.