Portland Schuyler, 55; Child Actress, Writer

Portland Mason Schuyler, the precocious and highly publicized child actress daughter of the late actors James and Pamela Mason, has died at age 55.

Also a scriptwriter like her late mother, Schuyler died May 10 in Beverly Hills after a long, unspecified illness.

From her birth Nov. 26, 1948, through her famous parents’ bitter courtroom divorce squabbles in 1964, Schuyler was widely photographed along with them. Named for Portland Hoffa, the wife of comedian Fred Allen, she grew up in the 10,000-square-foot mansion built by silent screen star Buster Keaton near the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Along with her younger brother, Morgan, the little girl became known for a widely publicized bohemian upbringing unfamiliar to mainstream 1940s and ‘50s families. The children stayed up as late as they wished while their more conservative father went to bed at 10 and their flamboyant mother partied until dawn. Schuyler wore makeup and high heels at age 7 and by 9 had her own mink coat and diamonds and was allowed to date.

An actress at 4, she starred as Sally in a short film called “The Child” written by her mother and directed by her father.

“Portland really wrote it,” Pamela Mason told The Times in 1957. “I just watched her and wrote about what she did.”

The girl also worked for her parents in a child’s television version of “The Nativity,” which was shown on Ed Sullivan’s Christmas show for two years.

Schuyler played Janey Rath, Gregory Peck’s daughter, in the 1956 film “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” and had child and juvenile roles in the subsequent films “Bigger Than Life,” “Cry Terror!” “The Great St. Trinian’s Train Robbery” and “Sebastian.” She also appeared as a princess in an episode of television’s “Shirley Temple’s Storybook.”

In 1957, the whole family got into the same act, portraying a family of four trapped on the 22nd floor of a deserted building. The TV show, when Schuyler was 8 and her brother not yet 2, was an episode called “Marooned” for NBC’s “Panic!” series.

Schuyler also acted with her mother in a summer stock play directed by her father, “Murder in the Red Barn,” at the Laguna Playhouse in 1959.

In addition to her brother, she is survived by her husband, Rob Schuyler.