Child Actress of ‘20s, ‘30s Dies After Car Crash

Carmen Robertson, who played bit parts as a child actress in 1920s and 1930s Hollywood with screen legends W.C. Fields, Katharine Hepburn and Lillian Gish, died Tuesday after a car crash in Ventura. She was 77.

Robertson moved to Ojai in 1961 and helped establish its long-running Studio Artists’ Tour. She also helped establish the Ojai Arts Center.

As a teen, she landed parts in Esther Williams’ water ballets after it was discovered she could hold her breath for two minutes, said her son, Cullen Robertson. She also appeared in several episodes of the 1930s series “Our Gang,” her family said.

She retired from film when she married Jack Robertson in 1949 and moved to Long Beach to raise her five children. Cullen Robertson said his mother used to entertain the family with movie stories.

“She said W.C. Fields was a nice man after all,” he said.

In the early days, Robertson was known in Ojai as a “wild woman” with equally interesting friends. One of her closest was world-renowned potter Beatrice Wood, known to friends as “Beato.”

Robertson was born March 31, 1923, in Los Angeles and began working in films as an infant under the name Carmencita Johnson. She appeared with Gish in the 1928 film “The Wind” and with Hepburn in the 1937 film “Quality Street.”

The Ojai Valley Museum plans to open an exhibition today of Hollywood memorabilia, including movie posters and still photographs highlighting Robertson’s career.

Friends said her work with Ojai’s artistic community was her greatest artistic legacy.

“She loved the arts and shared it with all the tourists who would come. And she did it with a lot of energy and love,” said Gayel Childress, an Ojai-based painter and art gallery owner.

In April 1999, during a gathering of Ojai elders, Robertson shared with The Times one of her secrets for a successful, peaceful life.

“I only speak for myself,” she said. “I was born independent, as my mother told me when I was 7. I don’t try to be dignified or worry about what others think. I say, ‘Good morning!’ to my favorite oaks, to the Chief [Chief Peak in the Topatopa Mountains]. I love it when he has a snow mustache--it makes me laugh.”

The Robertsons were traveling on Harbor Boulevard and turning onto Peninsula Street in Ventura when their 1990 Honda Civic was broadsided by a 1991 Chevrolet Blazer driven by Darin Acosta, 22, of Oxnard, authorities said.

The passenger side of the Robertsons’ car, where Carmen Robertson was sitting, received the brunt of the impact. She was taken to Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura, where she died about five hours later.

Jack Robertson, 78, remained in fair condition Thursday night at the same hospital. Acosta and his two passengers suffered minor injuries and were treated at a local hospital and released.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Robertson is survived by her husband Jack, sons Nicolas, Drew, Winslow and Cullen and a daughter, Sydney, as well as five grandchildren.