--- name: "Daisy Earles" canonical: "https://film.one/person/daisy-earles" fi1m_id: "daisy-earles" imdb_id: "nm0247360" tmdb_id: 1512 wikidata_id: "Q123661" roles: ["Actor"] born: "29 April 1907" died: "15 March 1980" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-25T01:08:33.958689+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Daisy Earles ## Identity Daisy Earles - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/daisy-earles - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** daisy-earles - **IMDb ID:** nm0247360 - **TMDB ID:** 1512 - **Wikidata ID:** Q123661 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Earles, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123661, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0247360/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1512 Actor. Born 29 April 1907 in Stolp, Germany. Died 15 March 1980. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 29 April 1907, Stolp, Germany - **Died:** 15 March 1980 - **Also known as:** Hilda Emma Schneider - **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 acting, 1 other - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 79 (1), 1950s 56 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Earles, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123661, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0247360/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1512 ## Fi1m on Daisy Earles > Daisy Earles makes Frieda’s ordinary romantic worries matter in *Freaks*, despite dialogue that often works against her. Her screen career was intermittent, but this substantial role is worth seeking out. In *Freaks* (1932), Daisy Earles’s Frieda is concerned for Hans, the man she is engaged to. That gives her a place in the film beyond the display of its sideshow performers. Her jealousy and affection are recognisable, even when the dialogue is stiff. We were moved by her worry for him, despite exchanges that made intimacy sound rehearsed. It is a performance worth seeking out, with reservations about how readily the romantic scenes convince. Her screen career was intermittent, with *Freaks* providing her most prominent role. *Three-Ring Marriage* (1928) preceded it; an uncredited Munchkin appearance in *The Wizard of Oz* (1939) and a brief uncredited part in *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1952) followed. Film work was largely fitted into the off-season of a circus career that included roughly thirty seasons with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Frieda consequently carries much of the weight when we judge what she could do on screen. Tod Browning’s affection for the performers is one reason *Freaks* works, and Earles benefits from being given a place in its central melodrama. Alongside Harry Earles as Hans and Olga Baclanova as Cleopatra, she is asked to sustain romantic feeling through Leon Gordon and Willis Goldbeck’s awkward dialogue. Harry’s directness is affecting, but the writing can make even his sincerity sound prepared. Daisy’s scenes in German and English give her concern and jealousy to express, feelings that need little explanation. The difficulty is making the spoken exchanges sound like something these people would say to one another. The film’s treatment of bodily difference complicates our response to Earles. Browning’s affection for the circus performers never settles the troubling business of making them an attraction. Giving Frieda an emotional life matters, but it does not exempt the film from that difficulty, or make the acting consistently persuasive. Start with *Freaks* for Earles; the brief appearances elsewhere cannot tell us nearly as much about how she handles a substantial part. ## Biography Daisy Earles, born Hilda Emma Schneider on 29 April 1907 in Stolpen, Germany, was an actress and circus performer with dwarfism. She migrated to the United States in the early 1920s and performed with her siblings Harry Earles, Gracie Earles and Tiny Earles, initially under the name The Earles and later as The Doll Family. Earles appeared in the 1928 film *Three-Ring Marriage*. She is best known for playing Frieda in the 1932 film *Freaks*, opposite her brother Harry Earles. She also appeared uncredited as a Munchkin in *The Wizard of Oz* (1939) and as a midget in *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1952). The siblings toured with circuses including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey for around thirty seasons. Earles retired from performing in 1958 and lived in Sarasota, Florida, where she died on 15 March 1980. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, wikitree.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) ### Performed in (1) — the average rests on these - *Freaks* (1932), Fi1m 79, as Frieda — [page](https://film.one/film/freaks.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1952), Fi1m 56, as Midget (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/the-greatest-show-on-earth.md) ## Complete filmography (3) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Greatest Show on Earth* (1952), as Midget (uncredited) — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/film/the-greatest-show-on-earth.md) - *Freaks* (1932), as Frieda — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/freaks.md) - *3-Ring Marriage* (1928), as Mrs. Cubby Snodd (as Tiny Earles) ## Gallery - ![Daisy Earles in a scene from the film Freaks, 1932 (1931)](https://film.one/media/person/1237268/gallery-457502c6bfa0.jpg) Daisy Earles in a scene from the film Freaks, 1932 (1931) — Clarence Sinclair Bull, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Daisy_Earles_in_1931.jpg/1280px-Daisy_Earles_in_1931.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Daisy Earles](https://film.one/media/person/1237268/gallery-6894586fd079.jpg) Daisy Earles — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/daisy-earles