Margaret Mann

Margaret Mann (4 April 1868 – 4 February 1941, in Los Angeles, California), was a Scottish-American actress.

This article is about the actor. For the librarian, see Margaret Mann (librarian).

Margaret Mann
Mann in 1920
Born(1868-04-04)4 April 1868
Aberdeen, Scotland
Died4 February 1941(1941-02-04) (aged 72)
Los Angeles, California, United States
OccupationActress
Years active1918–1941
SpouseJames F. Smythe[1]

Early years

Mann was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, one of 10 children in her family.[2] The family moved to South Africa when she was 12 years old. She worked at a variety of jobs, including being a dressmaker.[3] Her first involvement with acting came when she was 50 years old, portraying Martha Washington in a pageant.[2]

Career
Mann in an ad for Once to Every Woman (1920)

Mann worked as an extra in films for 10 years, primarily at Universal and Triangle studios.[2]

She starred in a number of major silent films such as Black Beauty in 1921 and played the lead role in John Ford's 1928 drama Four Sons, one of John Wayne's first films. She often played kind-hearted or suffering motherly roles. With the advent of sound films her roles got notably smaller and she was often uncredited. She portrayed the kindly grandmother Mrs. Mack in two Our Gang comedies in 1931. She also played bit parts in movies like Frankenstein, You Can't Take It With You, Gone with the Wind and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Her last of over 80 movies was The Remarkable Andrew (1942), released one year after her death.

Personal life

Mann's husband was an invalid, and her earnings from working in films helped to cover the family's expenses.[2] He was an accountant, and they met and married in South Africa.[3] Mann died of cancer in 1941, aged 72. Not much about her private life is known, although a press release of 1928 said that Mann lived through many tragedies and hardships in her life. Her spouse was James F. Smythe.[4][5]

Selected filmography

References
  1. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons 3d ed. p.473 by Scott Wilson c.2016 Retrieved September 8, 2017 ISBN 978-0-7864-7992-4
  2. "Lightning of Luck Strikes Mrs. Mann". Los Angeles Evening Express. 18 February 1928. p. 7. Retrieved 29 July 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Peake, Mayme Ober (18 February 1928). "Former 'extra' wins acclaim in new film of mother love". The Boston Globe. p. 11. Retrieved 29 July 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Evans, Delight (May 1928). "Success at 60". Screenland. p. 24. Retrieved July 29, 2023. "She would rather not talk about the two babies she had, who died. She loved them, and if they had lived she would probably not be playing mothers on the screen. As it is, she lavishes all her mother-love on her picture sons and daughters. Like Mary Pickford, she loves all children, having none of her own to love. [...] If anyone had told Margaret Mann forty years ago that she would be an actress some day, all her Scotch ancestors would have risen up in wrath. She was never even inside a theatre until she was a woman. Her family, strict Scots, frowned on play-acting. Margaret, one of ten sisters and brothers, had to leave school when she was ten years old, and go to work. She was one of the props of the family; she mothered the younger ones and helped to feed them all.[...] In Johannesburg she met James F. Smythe, an Englishman, and they were married. Seven years in South Africa—and the pioneer urge exerted itself again. Margaret Mann Smythe suggested that they pull up stakes—and seek their fortune in a new land—America!"
  5. Marks, Bill (September 5, 1928). "After Six in Warren: Patience and Pluck Win Laurels for 'Dauntless Lady' in Movie World". The Warren Tribune. p. 3. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  6. ..The International Bookbinder vol. 23; January 1922
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