Last Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind star turns 106 after surviving catastrophe | Films | Entertainment | EUROtoday

The final surviving actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood are virtually completely gone, with centenarian stars like Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland having shuffled off this mortal coil in the previous couple of years.

Now the oldest residing star of basic Tinseltown has turned 106 at this time and is the final actress left alive who featured in each 1939’s Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

Caren Marsh Doll was born on April 6, 1919, in Los Angeles, California, a yr after the tip of World War I.

After graduating from Hollywood High School in 1937, she set her sights on turning into an actress of stage and display screen.

A yr later, she had her large break, being solid as Judy Garland’s Dorothy stand-in for The Wizard of Oz and even being gifted her personal pair of ruby slippers.

Despite her function in The Wizard of Oz being uncredited, Marsh does function prominently in a single key scene of the film. It was her ft within the shot the place Dorothy faucets her ruby slippers collectively whereas saying, “There’s no place like home”.

When she wasn’t filling in for Garland, Marsh could be over at Selznick International Pictures working as a background additional on Gone with the Wind. The 106-year-old had two small roles within the interval basic as a BBQ Guest through the Twelve Oaks barbecue scene and Girl at Bazaar within the scene on the Atlanta charity bazaar.

Two years later, Marsh was standing in for Garland as soon as once more in The Ziegfeld Girl earlier than bigger roles in different motion pictures throughout World War 2 and turning into a dancer. In 1947, she was named Miss Sky Lady, showing in an air present and taking battle classes. Then, on July 12 1949, aged 30, Marsh was flying from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Burbank, California, when catastrophe struck.

As the twin-engine aircraft got here into land, it was flying too low, and the precise wingtip struck the hillside earlier than the plane crashed in Chatsworth, California. Marsh was simply considered one of 13 of the 48 passengers and crew on board who survived. She spent a number of weeks in hospital and virtually had her left foot amputated.

Told by medical doctors she would unlikely ever dance once more, the actress defied the chances and returned to her profession earlier than later turning into an teacher. She now lives in Palm Springs the place on Mondays she would volunteer as a dance remedy teacher on the native Stroke Activity Center.