British-born Mischa Barton moved to the US age five where, age nine, she made her screen debut on American soap opera All My Children, and, age 11, her cinema debut in 1997 fantasy drama Lawn Dogs opposite Sam Rockwell. You can then play “spot the young Mischa Barton” in a number of films. In the famous scene in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant hasn’t seen the film and then has to interview the cast at the press junket, it is Barton who plays the young child actor who has already appeared in 22 films, her favourite with Leonardo DiCaprio. (“Is he your favourite Italian director?” asks Hugh.) In The Sixth Sense, she is the young ghost who has been poisoned by her mother that Bruce Willis sees.
Barton starred in 1999 US indie crime thriller Pups and 2001 Canadian drama Lost and Delirious. It was her stint playing complex and ultimately self-destructing teenager Marissa Cooper in the first three seasons of The OC that propelled Barton into the stratosphere, although she has since stated how much she struggled with worldwide fame as a 17-year-old.
