Margot Grahame

Margot Grahame

Margot Grahame in The Three Musketeers
Born Margaret Clark
(1911-02-20)20 February 1911
Canterbury, Kent, England, UK
Died 1 January 1982(1982-01-01) (aged 70)
London, England, UK
Occupation Actress
Years active 1930–58
Spouse(s) Francis Lister (m. 1934; div. 1936)
Allan McMartin (m. 1938; div. 1946)
A. D. Peters (m. 1958; d. 1972)
With Victor McLaglen in John Ford's The Informer

Margot Grahame (20 February 1911 – 1 January 1982), also known as Margaret Clark, was an English actress most noted for starring in The Informer[1] (1935) and The Three Musketeers (1935). She started acting in 1930 and made her last screen appearance in 1958.

Film actress

She was born Margaret Clark in Canterbury, Kent.[2] Her family went to South Africa when she was three years old, which led to her being educated there. She began her stage career with Dennis Neilson-Terry a few weeks after leaving school at the age of 14, in Pretoria. She made her London stage debut in 1927 as understudy to Mary Glynne in The Terror. Her screen debut was in the 1930 film Rookery Nook.

Grahame was the highest-paid actress in Britain during the 1930s, before going to America, where she performed in a number of films from the 1930s to the 1950s. Hollywood producers' interest was piqued that she had appeared in 42 major roles in British films in only three years. Grahame was signed to a long-term contract by RKO.

She appeared as the prostitute girlfriend of Gypo Nolan in John Ford's The Informer (1935). She followed this performance with a role as leading lady Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers (1935). She was reunited with Walter Abel, her leading man in The Three Musketeers, a dozen years later in The Fabulous Joe (1947), which was produced by Bebe Daniels. As the character Emily Terkle, Grahame was appearing in her first film since The Buccaneer (1938). The latter dealt with U.S. history, particularly the lives of Jean Lafitte and Andrew Jackson. Starring opposite Fredric March, Grahame faced the challenge of playing the love interest rather than a siren. After World War II, she dyed her hair and became a redhead. She appeared in The Romantic Age in 1949.

Her last films were made in the 1950s and included I'll Get You for This (1951), The Crimson Pirate (1952), The Beggar's Opera (1953), Orders Are Orders (1954) and Saint Joan (1957). She also appeared in "The Sweater" (1958), an episode of The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1958).

Personal life

Grahame moved into a new home high in the Hollywood Hills after her separation from British actor Francis Lister in 1935. She married Canadian millionaire Allen McMartin in 1938. They divorced in 1946. In 1948, Grahame began a relationship with the British literary agent A. D. Peters that continued until his death in 1973.[3]

Death

Margot Grahame died in London on New Year's Day of 1982, aged 70, from chronic bronchitis.

Filmography

With Walter Abel in The Three Musketeers (1935)

References

  1. ↑ Margot Grahame biography at Movies & TV, New York Times.
  2. ↑ NNDB.
  3. ↑ Margot Grahame at Find a Grave
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