Granas died on Oct. 21, her family announced. Her nephew, film historian Arthur Grant, said the cause was dementia. She was a longtime resident of Beverly Hills.
Granas was just six years old when her life changed. After joining Temple and other children in a dance studio, she was asked to stand back-to-back with the young star. The two girls were exactly the same size. “They hired me as her stand-in,” Granas later recalled.
Her first day on the job came quickly. She reported to work on Baby, Take a Bow (1934), followed by several of Temple’s most famous films, including Bright Eyes, Now and Forever, Curly Top and The Little Colonel.
On the set of The Little Colonel, Granas stood only a few feet away as Temple performed her iconic staircase dance with Bill Robinson, a moment that became one of the most famous scenes in classic Hollywood.
“Shirley and I were best friends,” Granas said in later years. “We had a wonderful time together. We invented all kinds of games, and when the sets weren’t being used, we got to play ‘house’ in all these wonderful places.”
Born Marilyn Rowena Granas in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 1927, she appeared with Temple even before becoming her stand-in, acting in short films such as Glad Rags to Riches, Kid in Hollywood and The Kid’s Last Fight.
Despite the glamour, Granas later said she felt sympathy for Temple. In a 2016 interview, she described the star’s childhood as “unnatural,” noting that Temple did not attend public school, had few friends, and missed out on ordinary childhood experiences. “On the set, it was exclusively the two of us,” she said. “We never played with other kids.”
According to Grant, Granas kept her Jewish heritage private as a child, fearing that prejudice from Temple’s mother, Gertrude Temple, could affect both her career and her friendship with Shirley.
Granas also saw the downside of fame firsthand. In a 2020 recollection, she described being attacked by an older girl on a school playground who resented her celebrity status. The moment, she said, made her realize that fame “has two sides.”
After leaving child acting, Granas traveled widely with her mother and later attended Beverly Hills High School. There, she met experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, who cast her in his first publicly shown film, Escape Episode.
She went on to graduate from University of California, Los Angeles in 1951 with a degree in Speech and English. Granas then built a long career behind the scenes in television and film, working at CBS and later at NBC, where she rose from secretary to assistant casting director.
Over more than 30 years in casting, Granas helped establish the casting department at William Morris Agency, ran her own Beverly Hills-based agency, and worked as an agent. In the 1970s, she cast actors for the bilingual children’s series Villa Alegre. She was also active in industry events, including a 1955 Television Academy New Year’s Eve glamour contest known as “Miss Cinderemmy.”
For much of her adult life, Granas avoided discussing her early years with Temple. “I made a new life and chose not to be remembered as being Shirley Temple’s stand-in,” she once said.
In later years, however, she shared her memories, offering a rare, personal look at life beside one of Hollywood’s most famous child stars.
Granas is survived by her niece, Laurie.
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