Patty McCormack

Biography: A professional model at the age of four, Patty McCormack made her first TV appearance at seven, and within a year was a regular on the weekly series I Remember Mama. McCormack skyrocketed to stardom as the homicidal ten-year-old Rhoda Penmark in Maxwell Anderson's 1954 Broadway play The Bad Seed. She repeated this unforgettable characterization onscreen in 1956, earning an Oscar nomination. Though a versatile young actress, she had trouble securing worthwhile roles after Bad Seed, though she did star in the 1957 film comedy Kathy O' and played the title character in Peck's Bad Girl (1959), television's first videotaped sitcom. In the 1960s she sang with a rock band and appeared in a brief spate of psychedelic B-pictures bearing such titles as The Miniskirt Mob (1967) and The Young Runaways (1968). Thereafter, she returned to the screen only sporadically, concentrating on her family and her various business interests. In 1995 Patty McCormack brought Rhoda Penmark up to date inA professional model at the age of four, Patty McCormack made her first TV appearance at seven, and within a year was a regular on the weekly series I Remember Mama. McCormack skyrocketed to stardom as the homicidal ten-year-old Rhoda Penmark in Maxwell Anderson's 1954 Broadway play The Bad Seed. She repeated this unforgettable characterization onscreen in 1956, earning an Oscar nomination. Though a versatile young actress, she had trouble securing worthwhile roles after Bad Seed, though she did star in the 1957 film comedy Kathy O' and played the title character in Peck's Bad Girl (1959), television's first videotaped sitcom. In the 1960s she sang with a rock band and appeared in a brief spate of psychedelic B-pictures bearing such titles as The Miniskirt Mob (1967) and The Young Runaways (1968). Thereafter, she returned to the screen only sporadically, concentrating on her family and her various business interests. In 1995 Patty McCormack brought Rhoda Penmark up to date in Mommy, in which she played a murderous (but loving!) parent.… Expand