{
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  "@id": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/583695/sybil-jason",
  "name": "Sybil Jason",
  "url": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/583695/sybil-jason",
  "knownForDepartment": "Acting",
  "description": "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\n\nSybil Jacon was a South African-born, American child film actress who, in the late 1930s, was presented as a rival to Shirley Temple.\n\nBorn in Cape Town, South Africa, she began playing the piano at age two and, a year later, began making public appearances doing impersonations of Maurice Chevalier. She was introduced to the theatre-going public of London by way of her uncle, Harry Jacobson, a then-popular London orchestra leader and also pianist for Gracie Fields. The apex of her career came with a concert performance with Frances Day at London's Palace Theatre. Her theatre work led to appearances on radio and phonograph records as well as a supporting role in the film Barnacle Bill.\n\nIrving Asher, the head of Warner Bros.' London studio, saw Jason's performance in Barnacle Bill and arranged for her to make a screen test for the studio. The test was a success, resulting in Warner Bros. signing her to a contract. Her American film debut came as the lead in Little Big Shot, directed by Michael Curtiz and co-starring Glenda Farrell, Robert Armstrong, and Edward Everett Horton.\n\nJason followed this with supporting roles opposite some of Warner Bros. most popular stars, including Kay Francis in I Found Stella Parish, Al Jolson in The Singing Kid, Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart in The Great O'Malley, and again with Kay Francis in Comet Over Broadway. Warners also starred her in The Captain's Kid, and four Vitaphone two-reelers filmed in Technicolor: Changing of the Guard, A Day at Santa Anita, Little Pioneer, and The Littlest Diplomat.\n\nJason never became the major rival to Shirley Temple that Warner Bros. had hoped, and her film career ended after playing two supporting roles at 20th-Century Fox. These films — The Little Princess and The Blue Bird  — were supported Temple, who became her lifelong friend.",
  "birthDate": "1927-11-23",
  "deathDate": "2011-08-23",
  "birthPlace": "Cape Town, South Africa",
  "alternateName": [
    "Sybil Jacobson"
  ],
  "image": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/2LTzVwGPLvCYZBnNstihl59kYAq.jpg",
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  "lastVerified": "4 May 2026",
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      "title": "The Little Princess",
      "year": "1939",
      "role": "as Becky",
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      "title": "The Blue Bird",
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      "role": "as Angela Berlingot",
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      "title": "The Great O'Malley",
      "year": "1937",
      "role": "as Barbara 'Babs' Phillips",
      "roleKind": "cast",
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      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/j8AyjlH5UALij9PhJitjeLH13lT.jpg",
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      "title": "Comet Over Broadway",
      "year": "1938",
      "role": "as Jackie",
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    {
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      "tmdbId": 197273,
      "title": "A Dream Comes True",
      "year": "1935",
      "role": "as Herself (uncredited)",
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      "voteAverage": 6.667,
      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/fltMJf4l6Wh7sVOUDqirjZfeRgF.jpg",
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      "title": "Little Big Shot",
      "year": "1935",
      "role": "as Gloria Gibbs",
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      "title": "I Found Stella Parish",
      "year": "1935",
      "role": "as Gloria Parish",
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      "title": "The Captain's Kid",
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      "role": "as Abigail Prentiss",
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      "title": "The Singing Kid",
      "year": "1936",
      "role": "as Sybil Haines",
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      "title": "A Day at Santa Anita",
      "year": "1937",
      "role": "as Peaches Blackburn",
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      "title": "Woman Doctor",
      "year": "1939",
      "role": "as Elsa Graeme",
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      "title": "Musical Movieland",
      "year": "1944",
      "role": "as Scottish Girl",
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      "title": "The Littlest Diplomat",
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      "title": "Dance Band",
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      "title": "Barnacle Bill",
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      "role": "as Jill as a Child",
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      "title": "Changing of the Guard",
      "year": "1936",
      "role": "as Sybil",
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