Marilyn Granas, who was a stand-in for Shirley Temple in several 1930s films, died on Oct. 21. She was 97. Granas was Temple’s stand-in for Baby, Take a Bow, Bright Eyes, Now and Forever, Curly Top, and The Little Colonel. She also acted in Glad Rags to Riches, Kid in Hollywood, The Kid’s Last Fight, and—in 1947—Escape Episode (directed by the perfectly dreadful Kenneth Anger). In later years, Granas went to UCLA, and worked her way up at CBS and NBC, finally working at William Morris as a casting agent. “Shirley and I were best friends,” Granas said. “We had a wonderful time together. We invented all kinds of games, and of course when the sets weren’t being used, we got to play ‘house’ in all these wonderful places.” She added that “I did feel sorry for Shirley because her childhood was so unnatural. She didn’t get to go to public school. She didn’t have a lot of friends or get to do kid things, like ride bikes. On the set, it was exclusively the two of us. We never played with other kids.”
