Celebrated child actor - Cora Sue Collins - who appeared alongside Greta Garbo, Bette Davis has died aged 98

Cora Sue Collins - star of classic films including Torch Singer and Caravan - has passed away, just days after her 98th birthday. The actor, who appeared alongside the likes of Greta Garbo, Bette Davis and Merle Oberon during her career, died after suffering a stroke.

A child actor in the 1930s and 40s, Collins' daughter, Susie Krieser, told the Hollywood Reporter she passed away at home in Beverly Hills on Sunday (April 27) due to complications following a stroke.

Born in April 1927, Collins shot to fame as a child actor during the 'golden years of Hollywood' having debuted in The Unexpected Father in 1932 aged just five.

She went on to appear in dozens of films, including 1932's Smilin' Through, alongside Slim Summerville and ZaSu Pitts, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar that year.

The following year, she portrayed star Claudette Colbert's daughter Sally Trent in Torch Singer, before she was cast as a young Queen Christina in the film of the same name, which starred Greta Garbo.

However, despite appearing in more than 40 films, Collins retired from acting at the age of 18 following her final movie appearance in 1945.

During a 2019 interview, she looked back on her career - and the roles she landed, saying: "I must have the most common face in the world. I played either the most famous actresses of the 30s as a child, or their child. They made me up to look like everybody."

Off-screen, Collins lived a complicated marital life. She married Ivan Stauffer in the 1940s, and went on to marry James Morgan Cox in the 60s. However, in the 90s, her husband was listed as theatre owner Harry Nace, who passed away in 2002. She shared three children with another husband, James McKay.