Child star Karolyn Grimes may have starred in It's A Wonderful Life, but in real life, things weren't always so great.
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Grimes appeared in the Christmas classic when she was just 6 years old. She may have only appeared for six minutes of the film, but the actor made a memorable turn.
Unfortunately as the child star, now 84, tells The Hollywood Reporter her life turned to tragedy at just 11.
"My mother started getting sick," the child star said. "Unfortunately, it was something that couldn't be cured. It was what we would call early-onset Alzheimer's today. Back then, they didn't call it that. They just called it cerebral atrophy."
From there, it became impossible for the child star to continue her acting career. It was just too much for her parents.
"He would have had to pay somebody to take me for an audition because you have to have a guardian, and he'd have to pay for somebody, if I got a part, to be on set with me," said Grimes. "It was a bit much for him."
Sadly, Grimes mother died at 14, and her father passed the following year from a car crash. Grimes had her entire future in jeopardy.
"I had parents of friends who were willing to take me," she said. "I asked the judge, 'Do I have any say at all in who I go to or where I live?' And he said, 'Your desires are like a drop in the bucket.' I'll never forget that."
She ended up living with her uncle and his wife in Missouri, a time period marked by cruelty from her aunt. She married at 18 to escape her circumstances.
"I had to get away, and that was the only way I could see of getting out of there," she said. She ended up having two daughters, but her husband died in a hunting accident.
She married again and having two more kids. Her kids didn't ask much of her past as a child star.
"They knew I was in the movies, but that wasn't important to them because it wasn't important to me," she said. "I think in fourth grade they might've taken a picture to school and said, 'This is my mom, and she did this,' but that was about it."
In 1980, Grimes said that the Christmas classic ended up entering public domain and finding a renewed audience.
"Someone knocked on my door when I was 40 and said, 'Were you in the movie 'It's a Wonderful Life?'" said Grimes. "I said, 'Well, yeah.' And they said, 'Can I have an interview?'... So I dug up all my memorabilia from the basement, and we had an interview."
Sadly, Grimes said her son died by suicide in 1989. She fell into a depression.
"The part that's really sad is the fact that I never had my children see ['It's a Wonderful Life,' with its message that every life has great meaning and value]," she said. Her second husband also died of suicide.
However, the Christmas classic helped pull her out of depression. In 1993, she participated in a Target ad campaign. She connected with other child stars like hers
"We became real brothers and sisters after that," she said.
The child star realized the impact the film had.
"People came through the line for autographs, and they talked about considering taking their own lives, and how they watched the movie, and it saved them," she said.
