Sally O’Neil — Irish Luck (1925) 🇺🇸

When Mary Pickford disagreed with Marshall Neilan over the production of his story, “Patsy,” and decided to make Little Annie Rooney instead with another director, Mr. Neilan immediately started scrambling around looking for another girl to play the rôle he had written especially for Miss Pickford. The picture, he declared, would be made, all right, all right.

So with his discovery eye trained on every little girl in sight he finally spotted one named Noonan, a lovely Irish colleen who seemed just the person. Miss Noonan had no thought of the movies, but soon got over that. Neilan changed her name to Sally O’Neil, and immediately started her in the title rôle of “Patsy.”

She films beautifully, and impressed Marshall Neilan so much with her work in that one picture that he is already proclaiming her as a coming great star. Evidently, other persons around the Metro-Goldwyn lot find possibilities in her too, for she has been given a long-term contract by the company, and has been selected to play the title rôle in the next Rupert Hughes production, “The Rebellious Girl.”

The story of Sally O’Neil proves that it’s still possible to jump suddenly into the film spotlight if you’re lucky, and particularly if you’re Irish.

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Collection: Picture Play Magazine, July 1925