Why Patty McCormack Didn’t Like Talking About Oscar-Nominated Role as a ‘Murderous Sociopath’ in ‘The Bad Seed’ for a ‘Long Time’

Patty McCormack became one of the youngest Oscar nominees ever for her role in The Bad Seed. Although the 1956 film is now considered a camp classic and a horror masterpiece, McCormack didn’t realize the film’s impact for decades.

“For a long time . . . it was something that didn’t get discussed because it was a past achievement,” McCormack, 80, explained on an episode of the It Happened in Hollywood podcast. “And in those days, there was that awful expression, ‘has-been.’ You know? You’re a ‘has-been’ or it’s ‘old news’ or whatever.”

When she moved to Hollywood to keep working, most of her classmates were the children of actors, so her success wasn’t “thrilling” to them, either, she explained.

In the film, McCormack played Rhoda Penmark, an 8-year-old girl whose mother suspects she’s a killer, an early example of the “murderous child” trope that’s become a staple of the horror genre. Podcast host Seth Abramovitch called the character “a true murderous sociopath.”

The story began as a novel of the same name by William March that was adapted into a 1954 Broadway play, which also starred McCormack and most of the same cast that appeared in the film.

The movie was a success, making over $4 million at the box office and receiving four Oscar nominations, including a Best Supporting Actress nod for McCormack, who was just 11 at the time. In Stephen King’s 1980 book Danse Macabre about the horror genre, he listed it as one of his favorite horror films.

But after The Bad Seed was released and the Oscars came and went, McCormack said, “I did my best to separate myself from that role and reputation.”

“Back then, there was that awful, awful thing of being a one-hit wonder,” she explained. In the 1960s, she worked a lot in international low-budget films as an “ingenue,” but she said, “never did they connect my past with what I was doing in the present.” Only random film students might ask her about it.  

But over time, the culture around film history changed. “People started to appreciate the history of people’s careers,” she said. “Also, my character was kind of cool.” A friend told her that people identified with Rhoda because she “went against the grain of what was expected.” 

“That was an important thing for everybody in life as they were questioning their own sexuality, choices that they were free to make, stuff like that,” she said. “. . . Rhoda had a lot of stuff for a seemingly delicate little girl.”

Abramovitch called her a “rebel,” and McCormack agreed. Now, nearly 70 years since the film came out, she’s been to screenings of the movie where people dress up as her character in blonde wigs and braids. 

McCormack has continued to work since her days as a child star. Her credits include a role on the 1979 sitcom The Ropers, as Liz La Cerva in The Sopranos and Pat Nixon in Frost/Nixon. She’s also kept up working on stage.

When asked her secret to surviving child stardom, McCormack pointed out the importance of “not taking yourself too seriously.” She also credited her “pretty solid family,” who “weren’t that impressed” by her success. But as for acting, she said, “I liked what I did. It wasn’t a bad life for me. I had fun.”

“It didn’t rock their world, so that was helpful,” she said, calling her mom only “a little bit” of a stage mother. “She was more surprised, I think, at the turn of events than anything, because it wasn’t a planned future for me. It came by accident,” she said. 

But she said the hardest times in her career were the “transitions,” when she “grew out” of being a child actor and into an adult. “I got more self-conscious in the work.” 

That faded, eventually. Now, at 80, still acting on stage, she said, “I have great freedom now.”

“You have to be old enough where it doesn’t matter.”