Nancy Kelly (March , â€" January , ) was an American actress. A child
actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The
March of Time and became a movie leading lady in the late s, while
still in her teens. She made movies between and , including
portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (),
which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in
Stanley and Livingstone later that same year. She had her greatest
success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed,
receiving a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the stage
production and an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for the
film adaptation.Of Irish descent, Kelly was born in Lowell,
Massachusetts, into a theatrical family. Her mother was silent film
actress Nan Kelly, who coached her and managed her career. As a child
actress, Kelly appeared in films made on the East Coast by the age of
. Her younger brother was actor Jack Kelly, most noted for playing the
role of Bart Maverick, one of the two leads, alongside James Garner or
Roger Moore from to in the ABC television series Maverick. Nancy
Kelly and Jack Kelly bore an obvious family resemblance to each other
but never worked together in film or television.Kelly was educated at
Bentley School for Girls, Immaculate Conception Academy, and St.
Lawrence Academy.As a child model, her image had appeared in so many
different advertisements by the time she was nine years old that Film
Daily commented, "Nancy has been referred to as 'the most photographed
child in America,' largely because of her commercial posing."
actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The
March of Time and became a movie leading lady in the late s, while
still in her teens. She made movies between and , including
portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (),
which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in
Stanley and Livingstone later that same year. She had her greatest
success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed,
receiving a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the stage
production and an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for the
film adaptation.Of Irish descent, Kelly was born in Lowell,
Massachusetts, into a theatrical family. Her mother was silent film
actress Nan Kelly, who coached her and managed her career. As a child
actress, Kelly appeared in films made on the East Coast by the age of
. Her younger brother was actor Jack Kelly, most noted for playing the
role of Bart Maverick, one of the two leads, alongside James Garner or
Roger Moore from to in the ABC television series Maverick. Nancy
Kelly and Jack Kelly bore an obvious family resemblance to each other
but never worked together in film or television.Kelly was educated at
Bentley School for Girls, Immaculate Conception Academy, and St.
Lawrence Academy.As a child model, her image had appeared in so many
different advertisements by the time she was nine years old that Film
Daily commented, "Nancy has been referred to as 'the most photographed
child in America,' largely because of her commercial posing."
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