Biography

Cute-as-a-button, diminutive (5'2"), green-eyed brunette Sally O'Neil (sometimes billed as Sally O'Neill was a silent and early sound leading lady who maintained her leading status throughout her movie career. Born on October 23, 1908, in Bayonne, New Jersey, her father, Thomas Francis Patrick Noonan, was a judge and her mother, Hannah Kelly, a one-time singer with the Metropolitan Opera. One of 11 children, Sally's younger sister, who billed herself as Molly O'Day, became a well-known movie actress around the same time. 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 silents at age 17 and found an early penchant for playing unassuming Pickford-like innocents in short films. Sally moved quickly into starring roles with the lightweight feature film Don't (1925) opposite John Patrick that was billed as "a rip-roaring picture of rebellious youth!" in which she plays a C

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Filmography