{"id":89110,"date":"2025-10-20T01:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89110\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T01:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:54:11","slug":"beloved-1950s-kid-actress-is-unrecognizable-as-she-reflects-on-the-downsides-to-child-stardom-decades-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89110\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved 1950s kid actress is unrecognizable as she reflects on the downsides to child stardom decades on"},"content":{"rendered":"

At only 11 years old,\u00a0Patty McCormack earned critical acclaim thanks to her role in the 1956 psychological drama The Bad Seed.<\/p>\n

She completely blew the world away with her chilling performance as suspected killer Rhoda Penmark, becoming one of the youngest actresses in history to earn an Oscar nomination.<\/p>\n

But now, nearly seven decades on from the horror flick, McCormack, 80, certainly looks very different.<\/p>\n

She recently appeared on the It Happened in Hollywood podcast, during which, she reflected on the highs and lows that came with being propelled into the spotlight at such a young age.<\/p>\n

She credited her ‘pretty solid family’ with keeping her grounded amidst the sudden attention, explaining that they ‘weren’t that impressed’ by fame.<\/p>\n

‘It didn\u2019t rock their world, so that was helpful,’ she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And despite the film’s success, McCormack\u00a0said she tried hard to ‘separate herself’ from the role and the ‘reputation’ that it earned her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, she admitted that she didn’t get much recognition for her work in the flick in the years that followed because people at that time didn’t really care about actor’s past credits.<\/p>\n

\"At <\/p>\n

At only 1` years old, Patty McCormack earned critical acclaim thanks to her role in the 1956 psychological drama The Bad Seed<\/p>\n

\"She <\/p>\n

She completely blew the world away with her chilling performance as suspected killer Rhoda Penmark, becoming one of the youngest actresses in history to earn an Oscar nomination<\/p>\n

‘I did my best to separate myself from that role and reputation,’ she reflected.<\/p>\n

‘For a long time… it was something that didn’t get discussed because it was a past achievement.<\/p>\n

‘And in those days, there was that awful expression, a “has-been.” You’re a “has-been” or it’s “old news” or whatever.<\/p>\n

‘Back then, there was that awful, awful thing of being a one-hit wonder.’<\/p>\n

Even so, McCormack had nothing but positive memories from her time on set as a kid, adding: ‘I liked what I did. It wasn\u2019t a bad life for me. I had fun.’<\/p>\n

The star explained that she got by because she ‘didn’t take herself too seriously’ as a child, but added that when she transitioned into adulthood she began to struggle because she got ‘more self-conscious in the work.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

McCormack landed her debut at age six in the 1951 film\u00a0Two Gals and a Guy followed by the series\u00a0Mama from 1953 until 1956.<\/p>\n

She then landed the role as Rhoda in\u00a0The Bad Seed on Broadway followed by the movie adaptation.<\/p>\n

\"But <\/p>\n

But now, nearly seven decades on from the horror flick, McCormack (seen left this month), 80, certainly looks very different<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The star (left) recently appeared on the It Happened in Hollywood podcast, during which, she reflected on the highs and lows that came with being propelled into the spotlight as a kid<\/p>\n

\"She\u00a0starred <\/p>\n

She\u00a0starred in the soap opera The Best of Everything, Murder: She Wrote, The Sopranos, ABC’s The Ropers, Frost\/Nixon (seen), The Master, and General Hospital as an adult<\/p>\n

It earned a whopping $4 million at the box office and got four Academy Award nominations.<\/p>\n

After that, she continued to act,\u00a0portraying Helen Keller in the original 1957 Playhouse 90 production of William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, the film\u00a0Kathy O’, and briefly starred in her own series\u00a0Peck’s Bad Girl.<\/p>\n

Her other roles throughout the 1960s include\u00a0The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,\u00a0The Explosive Generation, and The Young Runaways.<\/p>\n

After transitioning to more adult titles she starred in the soap opera\u00a0The Best of Everything, Murder: She Wrote, The Sopranos, ABC’s The Ropers,\u00a0Frost\/Nixon,\u00a0The Master, and General Hospital.<\/p>\n

In 2018, McCormack portrayed Dr. March, the child psychiatrist consulted in the 2018 television remake of The Bad Seed.<\/p>\n

Most recently, she appeared in the Off-Broadway play\u00a0Just Another Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I have great freedom now,’ she concluded. ‘You have to be old enough where it doesn\u2019t matter.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At only 11 years old,\u00a0Patty McCormack earned critical acclaim thanks to her role in the 1956 psychological drama…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,557,156,558,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-89110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-femail","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}