GIGI PERREAU: The Major Little Minor

Films of the Golden Age
Issue Number 86
Fall 2016

“I loved working in this business and all the talent I got to rub elbows with. My body of work is very acceptable. I may not have been Shirley Temple but I was a good, solid, dedicated little actress!”

The emergence of Depression-era child superstar Shirley Temple triggered an avalanche of WWII-era cinemoppets eager to succeed the titanic tyke once she outgrew her pedestal. Topped with both trademark pigtails and (later) a pageboy crop, young freckle-faced GIGI PERREAU (1941- ) was a gifted little natural on camera and rivaled the likes of Margaret O’Brien in the spontaneous tears department. Holding her own opposite Hollywood’s elite (Colbert, Dunne, Hepburn, Stanwyck, Hudson), she later parlayed her precocious popularity into a modest young adult career on both film and TV before abruptly phasing out for family. Two sisters and a brother were also working child actors.

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