Donna Corcoran (born September 29, 1942) is an American former child actress who appeared in nine Hollywood films from 1951 through 1955. She was in two aquatic musicals that featured Esther Williams (portraying swimmer Annette Kellerman as a child in one), and as a vulnerable girl being victimized by an emotionally disturbed babysitter (played by Marilyn Monroe) in Don't Bother to Knock.
After making her last film, she made a token comeback as a young adult in an episode of the long-running sitcom My Three Sons (starring Fred MacMurray) in the early 1960s.
Personal life
Corcoran was born in Quincy, Massachusetts to William Henry Corcoran, Sr. and Kathleen H. McKenney. Several of her siblings were child stars, including younger sister Noreen Corcoran, Kevin Corcoran, and Kelly Corcoran. Corcoran married Luis Felipe Guerrero Newman, a rancher, in 1961; they had two daughters and later divorced. She married mining engineer Jerry Keene in 1981, and they remained married until his death in 2017.
Filmography Films YearTitleRoleNotes1951 Angels in the Outfield Bridget White with Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh1952 Love Is Better Than Ever Janice Lee Yogurt uncredited1952 Young Man with Ideas Caroline Webster 1952 Don't Bother to Knock Bunny Jones with Marilyn Monroe1952 Million Dollar Mermaid Annette - 10 years old with Esther Williams1953 Scandal at Scourie Patsy with Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson1953 Dangerous When Wet Junior Higgins again with Esther Williams1954 Gypsy Colt Meg MacWade with Ward Bond1955 Violent Saturday Anna Stadt with Victor Mature and Lee Marvin1955 Moonfleet Grace with Stewart Granger
Television YearTitleRoleNotes1953 Death Valley Days Gladys Murtaugh 1 episode1953–1957 The Life of Riley Ginny 2 episodes1955 TV Reader's Digest Sue Carson 1 episode1956 This Is the Life Suzy Granville 1 episode1957 Cavalcade of America Nancy 1 episode1957 The Danny Thomas Show Bobbie, Sorority Sister 1 episode1960 Tales of Wells Fargo Helen Brass 1 episode1963 My Three Sons Melissa Cartwright1 episode1963 The Donna Reed Show Claudia1 episode
References
Bibliography Best, Marc. Those Endearing Young Charms: Child Performers of the Screen (South Brunswick and New York: Barnes & Co., 1971), pp. 45–49.
External links