We read a reference to Australian actress Frances O'Connor earlier today and began to wonder... what on earth has happened to her? One minute, along with Cate Blanchett, she was the thespian wonder from Down Under in the States, and went from starring in Aussie flicks like Thank God He Met Lizzieto appearing alongside Brendan Fraser in Bedazzled and Jude Law in AI: Artificial Intelligence.

But what is she doing now? We forgot she existed until this afternoon, and quickly turned to Google which showed that she's laid pretty low since giving birth to her first child in 2005.

Google also turned up the Wikipedia page of another performer named Frances O'Conner. We think we prefer this one.

Frances Belle O'Connor (September 8, 1914 – January 30, 1982) was born in Granite Falls, Minnesota. She was born entirely without arms, and made her living by appearing in various circus sideshows as the armless wonder or the living Venus de Milo. She would perform various tricks, such as eating, drinking and smoking a cigarette, all using her feet in place of the missing hands.

She also appeared in the controversial 1932 film, Freaks, directed by Tod Browning, in which a number of real people with physical abnormalities played themselves or other characters.

O'Connor never married, although it was said that she was never short of admirers. She died in relative obscurity in Long Beach, California in 1982.

Add another to the list! We might start making a list of relative unknowns who have proved themselves to be far more intriguing than their celebrity namesakes.

Tags: au | frances o'connor | people who outshine their celebrity namesakes