Karolyn Grimes

Karolyn Grimes (born July 4, 1940 in Hollywood, California) is an American actress best remembered for delivering the iconic line “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings” as Zuzu Bailey in Frank Capra’s 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life. Her film debut occurred when she was merely six months old, and she quickly attracted attention playing Fred MacMurray’s daughter in the 1945 comedy Pardon My Past. The following year she appeared in six different pictures, most notably as the daughter of David Niven and Loretta Young in The Bishop’s Wife (1947). In total she starred in sixteen motion pictures as a child star, but the role of Zuzu has remained the cornerstone of her public legacy, earning her a star on the Missouri Walk of Fame and the Edwin P. Hubble Medal of Initiative in 2007. Despite early fame, Grimes’ personal life was marked by tragedy. Her mother, suffering from early‑onset Alzheimer’s, died when Karolyn was fourteen, and a year later her father was killed in an automobile accident, leaving her an orphan at fifteen. She was placed with relatives in Osceola, Missouri, where she completed her schooling and later earned a degree from the University of Central Missouri, training as a medical technologist. She married twice, first to Hal Barnes and later to psychologist Mike Wilkerson, and raised four children, though she endured the loss of her youngest child to suicide and the death of her second husband from cancer. In the 1980s renewed interest in It’s a Wonderful Life brought Grimes back into the public eye; Jimmy Stewart’s secretary tracked her down when she was thirty‑nine, leading to speaking engagements, fan conventions, and a role as a brand ambassador for Target’s Christmas campaign. She has authored a holiday cookbook that intertwines recipes with anecdotes from the set, and in 2023 she recorded her famous line for Danish singer Anders Knudsen’s Christmas single “A Day in the Life of a Christmas Tree”. Today she continues to appear at screenings worldwide, sharing the timeless optimism of the film that defined her childhood.