Introduction
Donna Corcoran, (born September 29, 1942) is a former child actress who appeared in several Hollywood films of the early 1950s. She most notably appeared in two aquatic musicals that featured Esther Williams (playing swimmer Annette Kellerman as a child in one of them), and as a vulnerable girl being victimized by an emotionally disturbed babysitter (played by Marilyn Monroe) in a more serious drama, Don't Bother to Knock.
After making her last film in 1955, she made a token comeback as a young adult in an episode of the long-running television sit-com My Three Sons (starring Fred MacMurray) in the early 1960s before finally leaving acting altogether.
Corcoran was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, to William "Bill" Corcoran, Sr. (1905–1958) and the former Kathleen McKenney (1917–1972). Several of her siblings were also child stars, including younger sister Noreen Corcoran, who played Kelly Gregg on John Forsythe's Bachelor Father (CBS, NBC, and ABC). Two younger brothers also went into acting: Kevin Anthony Corcoran, a star of various Walt Disney films and later a director and producer, and Kelly Corcoran (1958–2002), as a child star, appeared in the Barry Sullivan western series The Road West (1966–1968). Another brother, Brian Corcoran, also worked in television as a youth.
Selected filmography
- Angels in the Outfield (with Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh) (1951)
- Don't Bother to Knock (with Marilyn Monroe) (1952)
- Million Dollar Mermaid (with Esther Williams) (1952)
- Dangerous When Wet (again with Esther Williams) (1953)
- Scandal at Scourie (with Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson) (1953)
- Gypsy Colt (with Ward Bond) (1954)
- Moonfleet (with Stewart Granger) (1955)