The last surviving actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood are almost entirely gone, with centenarian stars like Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland having shuffled off this mortal coil in the last few years.
Now the oldest living star of classic Tinseltown has turned 106 today and is the last actress left alive who featured in both 1939’s Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.
Caren Marsh Doll was born on April 6, 1919, in Los Angeles, California, a year after the end of World War I.
After graduating from Hollywood High School in 1937, she set her sights on becoming an actress of stage and screen.
A year later, she had her big break, being cast as Judy Garland’s Dorothy stand-in for The Wizard of Oz and even being gifted her own pair of ruby slippers.
Despite her role in The Wizard of Oz being uncredited, Marsh does feature prominently in one key scene of the movie. It was her feet in the shot where Dorothy taps her ruby slippers together while saying, “There’s no place like home”.
When she wasn’t filling in for Garland, Marsh would be over at Selznick International Pictures working as a background extra on Gone with the Wind. The 106-year-old had two small roles in the period classic as a BBQ Guest during the Twelve Oaks barbecue scene and Girl at Bazaar in the scene at the Atlanta charity bazaar.
Two years later, Marsh was standing in for Garland once again in The Ziegfeld Girl before larger roles in other movies during World War 2 and becoming a dancer. In 1947, she was named Miss Sky Lady, appearing in an air show and taking fight lessons. Then, on July 12 1949, aged 30, Marsh was flying from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Burbank, California, when disaster struck.
As the twin-engine plane came into land, it was flying too low, and the right wingtip struck the hillside before the aircraft crashed in Chatsworth, California. Marsh was just one of 13 of the 48 passengers and crew on board who survived. She spent several weeks in hospital and almost had her left foot amputated.
Told by doctors she would unlikely ever dance again, the actress defied the odds and returned to her career before later becoming an instructor. She now lives in Palm Springs where on Mondays she would volunteer as a dance therapy instructor at the local Stroke Activity Center.
