Mary Badham

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Mary Badham born October 7 1952 is an American actress known for her portrayal of Jean Louise Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress At the time Badham age 10 was the youngest actress ever nominated in this category Mary Badham is the younger by thirteen years sister of film director John Badham The Badham siblings however have never worked together on the same film Badham had no prior film acting experience before being cast in To Kill a Mockingbird The Oscar in her category went to another child actress Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker During filming Badham became particularly close to actor Gregory Peck who played Scouts father and afterwards she remained in touch with him always calling him by his characters name Atticus until his death in 2003 Badham is also widely known for her role as Sport Sharewood in The Bewitchin Pool the final episode of the original Twilight Zone series She also appeared in the films Lets Kill Uncle and This Property Is Condemned before retiring from the acting profession At the urging of actorwriterdirector Cameron Watson Badham came out of retirement to play an offbeat cameo opposite Keith Carradine for his film Our Very Own Watson stated he would not accept any other actress for the part He had managed to contact her via Monroeville Alabama where she had been invited to attend a stage version of To Kill a Mockingbird At present Badham is an art restorer and a college testing coordinator Married to a school teacher and the mother of two Anthony and Anna she also travels around the world recalling her experiences making To Kill a Mockingbird while expounding on the books messages of tolerance and compassion Description above from the Wikipedia article Mary Badham licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia