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The LOUANNE Page
by Jon Merrill
LOUANNE was one of Hollywood’s most famous and talented
child stars in history, starring in “Oh God, Book II” with George Burns in
1980 when she was 9 years old.
Before that she played the title role in “Annie” in the 2nd National
touring company in Los Angeles
in 1979. At the time she began doing
“Annie,” she was the youngest ever picked (just turned 9) to do the title
role, and she was generally regarded by critics as being perhaps the best
actress in history ever to play the title role on stage.
Louanne in 2005
Louanne Sirota was born on Monday, January 26, 1970
in Fort Worth, Texas.
Two years before the birth, her mother saw an apparition of Louanne
as a newborn, the account of which is documented in the May 1993 issue of
Fate Magazine. When Louanne was 5, a
psychic told her mom that Louanne would become famous in show business.
Louanne’s family lived in Weybridge, England for a year, after which
they moved to Los Angeles
when Louanne was 4. She was 6 when
she appeared in a school production directed by a child talent scout, Roy
Gordon, who was so impressed with Louanne’s singing ability that he gave
her a solo in the show. Louanne
wowed the audience with her rendition of “Ma! He’s Makin’ Eyes At Me,” and
Mr. Gordon told the audience he predicted Louanne would be a big star. During the next year, Mr. Gordon worked
with Louanne to learn stage presence and overcome her natural shyness. He entered her in regional talent shows,
and Louanne collected a multitude of trophies and cash prizes in contest
wins. He then got her an audition on
the Chuck Barris “Gong Show” when she was 7.
She competed on the “Gong Show”
twice, on the nighttime show and on the daytime show, and won a full 30
points and a trophy at each appearance (Rex Reed said “I think she’s
terrific!”). Chuck Barris introduced
her as “Lou - AAAANNNNNNE!” without her last name. It stuck, and her mom/manager decided to
keep using the single name professionally throughout Louanne’s childhood
career. Louanne has the distinction
of being the only “Gong Show” contestant ever to go on to a showbiz career.
The two “Gong Show” appearances
aired on January 16 (daytime), shortly before her 8th birthday, and
February 23 (nighttime) in 1978, although the nighttime one was actually
taped first, as Louanne was asked to do that one first. About a month later, Louanne performed
“Ma! He’s Makin’ Eyes At Me” on the “Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show,” which
aired on March 14 and also starred Anson Williams, Chuck Berry, Jaye P.
Morgan, and Chita Rivera.
Not long after the “Gong Show,” Roy
Gordon became ill, but before he died, he told Louanne’s mom to take her to
audition for “Annie.”
Picture property of annieorphans.com
In early 1979, the 2nd National
Broadway National Tour of “Annie” was running at the Shubert Theatre in LA,
and some of the kids were beginning to outgrow their parts, so an audition
notice appeared in the newspaper.
Louanne’s mom took her to the audition, and Louanne won the part of
the Swing Orphan (the extra Orphan opposite Annie designated to substitute
on stage for any of the other Orphans, should they be ill or away). She began with the “Annie” company on March 19, 1979. Martin Charnin, the director and creator
of “Annie,” had never considered anyone as young as 9 for the title role,
but he was so impressed with Louanne’s talent, that six weeks after she
joined the show, she was elevated to the role of Annie, replacing Patricia
Ann Patts, who was leaving the show.
It was Louanne who paved the way for later very young Annies down
the road who took the role on Broadway and in the other National Tours.
She opened as Annie at the Shubert
on June 12, 1979
and performed the role until December 1979.
This was the 2nd National Tour of “Annie,” but it happened that
Louanne spent her entire run at the Shubert, which worked out very well,
since she was living in nearby Beverly
Hills at the time.
Louanne got rave reviews for her
portrayal of Annie, and she performed a show-stopping version of “Tomorrow”
on the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy telethon at Labor Day. She also appeared on the St. Jude
telethon with Danny Thomas in 1979.
In the fall of that year, she took a week off from “Annie” to film a
TV movie with Dean Jones and Joan Hackett called “The Long Days of Summer,”
a highly-acclaimed film about Nazi sympathizers infiltrating the U.S. at the
dawn of World War II in the late 1930s, in which Louanne co-starred as
Sarah Cooper. It aired on May 23, 1980.
Towards the end of 1979, Louanne
landed the starring role of Tracy Richards, God’s young helper, in the
Gilbert Cates-directed film “Oh God, Book II,” opposite George Burns as
God, David Birney, and Suzanne Pleshette.
She left “Annie” and began filming the movie in early January
1980. She remembers celebrating her
10th birthday (January 26) along with George Burns’s 84th birthday (January
20) in a party on the set. There was
another joint birthday celebration for publicity at Lui’s Chinese
restaurant, in which the top of the huge cake fell off during the festivities.
Just after filming concluded,
Louanne charmed the TV audience by appearing on the “Merv Griffin Show” and
singing a medley of songs from “Annie.”
She also appeared on the Steve Edwards Show. Then she co-starred as
Lynda (Wonder Woman) Carter’s daughter Abby Newman in a TV movie, “The Last
Song,” a thriller about domestic terrorism at a chemical plant. Louanne fondly remembers many lunches in
Lynda Carter’s trailer on the set.
Later in 1980 ABC signed Louanne to
a one-year holding contract. On March 24, 1981, Louanne
taped a pilot for ABC-TV at Paramount Studios called “Mean Jeans,” starring
with Vicki Lawrence as her daughter Deena.
Rob Lowe played a small part in this pilot.
Late in 1981, at 11 years old,
Louanne was asked to return to “Annie” in a different tour, this time the
1st National Broadway tour. She went
on stage as Annie in Boston
at the Colonial Theatre on May
15, 1981, replacing departing Theda Stemler. She then performed the title role
starting in Toronto
at the O’Keefe Centre May 20-June 6, then on to an opening in Los Angeles, this
time at the Pantages Theatre June 17-July 26; then on to Washington, D.C at the Kennedy Center.
By late summer the 1st National
Tour was winding down, and Louanne left the tour in Washington, D.C.
in August 1981 and returned home to California. She did not see “Annie” on the stage
again until I took her to see the Broadway 20th Anniversary revival in New York in September
1997.
After finishing “Annie,” she
guest-starred on “Mork and Mindy” as Miss Geezba, the teacher of Mork’s
son, played by Jonathan Winters.
This episode was called “P.S. 2001” and was on TV on December 17, 1981. She also guest-starred on “The Love Boat”
in an episode that aired on December
4, 1982, called “Father, Dear Father,” playing a young girl who
wanted to be an actress.
Louanne was in a third TV movie in
1983, this time starring as Elizabeth Montgomery’s daughter Valerie Scott
in “Missing Pieces,” which aired on Saturday, May 14, 1983. All three of Louanne’s TV movies came out
on videotape but are out of print and are of the extremest rarity today and
are highly sought after by collectors.
In 1983 she starred as Shelby
Armstrong in a TV drama series called “Two Marriages.” It received excellent reviews, premiering
on ABC-TV on August 23,
1983 with Michael Murphy, C. Thomas Howell, and Kirk Cameron as
Louanne’s little brother. Louanne
was entered by ABC for an Emmy award for “Two Marriages” in May 1984.
Louanne was in a starring role in
another pilot that was aired on TV, “Aloha Paradise” with Debbie Reynolds,
Dean Jones, Connie Stevens, Louis Jordan, Lorne Greene, and Van
Johnson. She also starred in a guest
shot on the “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” series with the late River
Phoenix in an episode about when they were trapped in a mine.
Eight years after her appearances
on the “Gong Show,” Louanne, 15, was asked to appear on a special reunion
show called "Anything For A Laugh" marking Chuck Barris’s 50th
year in show business as the only “Gong Show” contestant to go on to a
career in showbiz.
At 16 Louanne became emancipated in
court and immediately won a part and traveled to Chicago in 1986 to film “A Night in the
Life of Jimmy Reardon.” She played
the part of the sophisticated socialite, Suzie Middleberg, opposite River
Phoenix and Matthew Perry. The movie
was not released until 1988.
Then Louanne guest-starred as a
runaway named Sandy Gillian on “The Bronx Zoo” in the episode “Runaway
Heads” that aired on April 22, 1987.
Also in 1987 she co-starred in a TV pilot with Patti LuPone called
“Cowboy Joe” as Patti’s daughter Isabelle, and she also had a starring role
in a “True Confessions” episode about 1986 or 1987. The “True Confessions” is the “rarest of
the rare” among Louanne’s TV appearances; neither she nor her family have
ever seen it. (Anyone out there
remember it or have it on tape??)
After that, Louanne went to college
and did occasional theater during the interim. She graduated from the University of
California at Santa Cruz in 1997 with honors in literature and journalism.
In 2001 she played Sofia in a movie
called "The Vindicator," which was also directed by William
Richert.
Louanne went back to school in 2004
and earned her Masters degree in Composition/Rhetoric/Linguistics from
California State University in 2006.
Louanne was seen as Judith Pallacio
in "The Detective" with Tom Berrenger in 2006.
She also appeared on two episodes
of "McBride" as the forensics expert Lucy Jones: "It's
Murder, Madam" in 2005, and "Requiem" in 2006.
In 2005 Louanne was featured as
herself in the documentary "Life After Tomorrow," which aired on
Showtime in December 2006. Directed by Julie Stevens and Gil Cates Jr. (son
of her "Oh God Book II" director), it depicts many former
"Annie" kids from the late '70s and early '80s telling of their
experiences on Broadway and the National Tours.
Look for Louanne in the 2008 video
of Danielle Brisebois’ “Rock Obama” song on YouTube. She is wearing a dark red curly wig.
Louanne was on the screen once
again in 2011 in “Accidentally In Love” with Jennie Garth and Marilu
Henner.
AWARDS PRESENTED TO LOUANNE:
1.
Award of Excellence (plaque) from the Film Advisory Board, Inc. for
"Oh God, Book II" on October 19, 1980 as the Most Promising Young
Newcomer.
2.
Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films: Awarded the
Golden Scroll Award of Merit for outstanding achievement in film, 1980, for
"Oh God, Book II."
3.
Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films: Nominated for
Best Actress, annual Saturn Awards, for "Oh God, Book II," along
with Ellen Burstyn in "Resurrection," Angie Dickinson in
"Dressed to Kill," Jamie Lee Curtis in "Terror Train,"
and Jane Seymour in "Somewhere in Time."
4.
Academy of Family Films and Family Television (1st annual award):
Academy Award of Merit for Outstanding Achievement, Best Actress, for “Oh
God, Book II.”
5.
DramaLogue: Award for
outstanding performance for “Annie,” 1980 (youngest recipient in history of
DramaLogue Awards).
Probably one of the most
interesting aspects of Louanne’s remarkable career was a statement
reflecting research by a top Publicity Agency:
“At just 9 years old, Louanne Sirota was
the youngest and only actor in history to step into Hollywood and star in
all three media--stage, television, and film--without ever having any
training or a bit part, all in the space of 8 months.”
(something for the Guinness Book of
World Records??)
Extra Trivia about Louanne:
Louanne’s last name, Sirota, means
“orphan” in Russian. This is a
remarkable coincidence, considering Louanne’s role as Little Orphan Annie.
Louanne lost both her front teeth
just before her first “Gong Show” appearance, although she still had them
when she auditioned. Chuck Barris
mentioned this as he introduced her on the show.
A very early influence on Louanne
as a small child was the late Lena Zavaroni, the 10-year-old singer who was
a sensation in Europe in 1974.
Louanne was about 4 when she first saw Lena sing “Ma! He’s Makin’
Eyes on Me” on TV in England, and soon after,when Louanne’s family moved to
the US, she listened to Lena’s album over and over and learned all the
songs. This is how she came to perform
“Ma!” on the “Gong Show.”
Louanne always wore the same yellow
dress on all her pre-“Annie” appearances, as the family could not afford a
new dress. The dress on “The Gong
Show” was pieced together from hand-me-downs and was actually two dresses
combined, a plain yellow dressy dress, and a sleeveless summer sun dress
over it, which gave the illusion of an old-fashioned bib dress of the
1940s. The yellow ribbons in
Louanne’s hair came off a gift package.
Louanne did not start talking until
she was 2 years old. It was feared
that there was something wrong and that she might never speak, but then,
suddenly she said, “May I have a glass of water, please?” with perfect
enunciation and diction, just as an adult would speak. She never talked baby talk or said
“ma-ma” or “da-da” or the like.
On “The
Love Boat,” in the dinner scene, where Louanne is sitting opposite Kim
Darby and Lawrence Pressman, who plays her father, the hot fudge sundae in
front of her is not ice cream; it's mashed potatoes--they don't melt.
Louanne added a year to her age for
her “Oh God, Book II” audition, as they wanted an 11-year-old. Louanne was actually 9 when she
auditioned, and turned 10 near the end of filming (in the media the
captions said she was celebrating her 11th birthday, when, in actuality it
was her 10th). This was unusual, in
that most actors make themselves younger for the purposes of their
careers. Louanne had to do the
opposite and “convince” them she was an “older” woman!
Louanne is a petite 5'2" tall
and her shoe size is 7 and 1/2. She has small hands, and her hair is thick,
naturally curly and a dark, rich brunette, and she has brown eyes. Although
she had straight hair in her childhood roles, it became curly in her
adulthood.
-- Jon Merrill, February 2007
**This bio may be considered
“official” and is the only Web site carrying true and complete information
about Louanne’s career. Pictures throughout this site must not be copied,
and anyone interested in using them should contact me.**
http://www.hingepepper.com/louannepage.htm
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