How IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Saved One of Its Stars

Published: December 27, 2024

How IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Saved One of Its Stars

By Movieguide® Contributor

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE star Karolyn Grimes says the movie’s legacy saved her as she faced a series of family tragedies.

Grimes played Zuzu Bailey in the Christmas classic, uttering the famous line, “Daddy! Teacher says, ‘Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.'”

She appeared in other movies, like THE BISHOP’S WIFE and RIO GRANDE, but Grimes’ acting career came to an end when she was 11 after her mother developed early-onset Alzheimer’s.

“Unfortunately, it was something that couldn’t be cured,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

Grimes’ mother passed away when she was 14 and, just a year later, her father was killed in a car accident. She was sent to live with family in Missouri, but suffered “extremely cruel” treatment from her aunt. At 18, she got married but had no desire to return to her Hollywood career.

“In Hollywood,” she said, “it was always dog eat dog. In the Midwest, they’re sweet, good people. That’s where I wanted to be.”

Grimes went on to become a mother and stepmother to her second husband’s children, as well as a medical technologist, and never thought much about her acting days. However, after IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE entered the public domain and became popular with viewers, Grimes became sought after by fans.

“Someone knocked on my door when I was 40 and said, ‘Were you in the movie IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE?’ I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ And they said, ‘Can I have an interview?’ And I said, ‘Oh, okay,’” Grimes shared. “So I dug up all my memorabilia from the basement, and we had an interview. The next week, the same thing happened, and then it happened again.”

“We became real brothers and sisters after that,” Grimes explained.

It was on that same tour that Grimes began to see the impact IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE had on its viewers.

“People came through the line for autographs, and they talked about considering taking their own lives, and how they watched the movie and it saved them,” she shared, adding that those experiences made her want to “spread the message [of the movie] or keep it alive, whatever I could do.”

Grimes added, “I just thought, ‘This is my path and this is what I’m supposed to do.’ And I’ve been doing it ever since.”

In an interview with The Spectator, she elaborated on the movie’s message, saying, “It was only when I was in my forties that I finally came to appreciate the true message of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: We’re all going to suffer at some point, and it’s how we deal with it that counts.”

“There has to be something that people get from it to keep it in their hearts and in their homes every year at Christmas,” she concluded. “And it’s something that I want to be a part of and share with everybody I can.”

In an interview with Record Searchlight, Grimes shared, “If you think about the struggles that George Bailey went through, it’s no different than the struggles any of us go through. We don’t realize how we affect people’s lives and how we can make a difference. So when we watch this movie, we realize we can make a difference. We sit back, watch this movie and we realize that we do actually have a wonderful life.”

READ MORE: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE REVIEW