She also worked as a philanthropist and a businesswoman, most notably owning and operating the Disneyland Hotel and the Queen Mary in Long Beach, with her husband.

[3][5] In addition to her Oscar nomination, Granville received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for her contributions to the film industry.

[8] She made her film debut at the age of nine in Westward Passage (1932), and appeared in a credited but nearly wordless supporting role as the young dancer Fanny Bridges in Cavalcade (1933), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Renamed These Three, the film told the story of three adults (played by Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, and Joel McCrea) who find their lives almost destroyed by the malicious lies of an evil, attention-seeking child.

In 1938, Granville was cast by Warner Bros. to play the role of girl detective Nancy Drew in a series of B movies based on the novels.

Granville co-starred in the films with John Litel as her father Carson Drew, and Frankie Thomas, Jr. as Ted Nickerson.

Also in 1938, Granville appeared as the saucy, mischievous daughter in the multiple Academy Award-nominated hit comedy film Merrily We Live, and starred as the title character in The Beloved Brat.

In 1941, Granville signed with RKO Pictures[9] and immediately found more substantial supporting roles in The Glass Key (1942) and Now, Voyager (1942), for which she was loaned out to Paramount and Warner Bros.

Following her leading role in Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942), director Edward Dmytryk, soon cast her in RKO's World War II anti-Nazism film Hitler's Children (1943).

Granville worked as a producer for several film and television productions featuring these characters, including the 1954 TV series Lassie.

Granville died on October 11, 1988, of lung cancer at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 65.