The child actress who played Zuzu in Xmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life’ says her life was no egg nog fest in interview shocker!
In fact, Karolyn Grimes, 72, who played Zuzu in the Frank Capra 1946 Yuletide perennial, needed a whole lotta faith in a life that was far from being wonderful.
"My mother died when I was 12, and right after, my dad died in a car crash. I was 15 and had no family," Grimes, told the Washington Post.
Grimes was sent to live with an aunt and uncle, but felt distant, alienated.
"They were kind of nutso religious fanatics who didn't believe in movies, dancing, singing," she admitted. "I don't think they believed in laughing, either."
Her heartbreak continued into adulthood. Married young, quickly divorced, and then her ex died suddenly in a hunting accident.
Karolyn’s husband died of cancer.
Her son committed suicide at 18, and two of her daughters became single mothers.
"My life has never been wonderful," Grimes says. "Maybe when I was a child, but not after age 15."
Years later, living near Kansas City, Mo., in December 1979 she caught out of the corner of her eye seeming familiar faces and places on the TV.
“I never saw the movie before,” Grimes confessed. "Then it hit me — I was in that movie.
“I WAS Zuzu.”
