Biography

Child actress Patti (or Patty) Hale was born as Diana Jeanne Schultz in Toledo, Ohio. From 1943, she was billed as Diana Hale (not to be confused with the television actress Diana Hale, who was born four years earlier). Patti/Diana appeared in just a handful of pictures. Blonde and rosebud-lipped, she was a liberal arts graduate from Ohio University and had already acted on radio, in local theatre and in films by the time of her graduation in 1954. Her standout role on the screen was that of the little girl Hildy in My Friend Flicka (1943), one of the most fondly remembered animal movies of all time. Credited as Diana Hale, Patti played the younger sister of the picture's main star, Roddy McDowall, both devoted to a chestnut filly named Flicka (the Swedish word for 'girl'). She reprised her role for a sequel, Thunderhead: Son of Flicka (1945), released two years later.

Unable to transition to mature acting roles, Patti made several TV commercials for Westinghouse appliances in the 1950s. From 1955 to 1956, she performed as one of a trio of entertainers touring Alaska and the Middle East. By the following decade, she was little heard of. In her later years, Patti worked in public relations and eventually retired to Nevada.
- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis