It is rumored she didn't achieve stardom because she added some weight
due to her adolescence. The studio punished her by holding back
important film offers.
She and her two sisters all went into show business. Sister Isabelle
retired young. Molly and her other successful actress sister, Virginia
(renamed 'Sally O'Neil Keenan') both became "Wampas Baby Stars" -- Sally in 1926 and
Molly in 1928. They appeared together in three films: The Lovelorn (1927), Show of Shows (1929) and
Sisters (1930).
She was a freshman in high school when Hal Roach selected her to be in
the "Our Gang" comedies.
Was one of 11 children. Her mother, Hannah Kelly, was forced
to give up her singing career with the Metropolitan Opera in order to
raise her children after her husband, Thomas Francis Noonan, a judge in Bayonne, NJ, died.