Last Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind star turns 107 after survivin | Films | Entertainment | EUROtoday

The final surviving actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood are nearly solely 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 dwelling star of basic Tinseltown has turned 107 right now and is the final actress nonetheless 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 12 months after the top of World War I.

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

A 12 months later, she had her massive 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 toes 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 can be over at Selznick International Pictures working as a background further on Gone with the Wind. The 106-year-old had two small roles within the interval basic as a BBQ Guest in the course of 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 films throughout World War 2 and changing into a dancer. In 1947, she was named Miss Sky Lady, showing in an air present and retreating 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 airplane got here into land, it was flying too low, and the proper wingtip struck the hillside earlier than the plane crashed in Chatsworth, California. Marsh was simply one in all 13 of the 48 passengers and crew on board who survived. She spent a number of weeks in hospital and nearly had her left foot amputated.

Told by medical doctors she would unlikely ever dance once more, the actress defied the percentages and returned to her profession earlier than later changing 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.