Peggy Shannon
Peggy Shannon (born Winona Sammon; January 10, 1907[1] [2] – May 11, 1941) was an American actress. She appeared on the stage and screen of the 1920s and 1930s.
Peggy Shannon | |
|---|---|
.jpg.webp) Portrait of Shannon by John de Mirjian | |
| Born | Winona Sammon January 10, 1907 Pine Bluff, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Died | May 11, 1941 (aged 34) |
| Resting place | Hollywood Forever Cemetery |
| Years active | 1923–1940 |
| Spouses | Alan Davis
(m. 1926; div. 1940)Albert G. Roberts (m. 1940) |
Shannon began her career as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923 before moving on to Broadway productions. She was signed to Paramount Pictures and groomed to replace Clara Bow as the newest "It girl", whom she replaced in the 1931 film, The Secret Call. Her growing dependency on alcohol eventually derailed her career. She appeared in her final film Triple Justice in 1940. In May 1941, Shannon died at the age of 34 from a heart attack, brought on by alcoholism. Her husband Albert G. Roberts shot himself three weeks after her death.
Career
Shannon was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1907[1][3] (some sources erroneously cite 1909[4] or 1910[5]) to Edward and Nannie Sammon. She had a younger sister, Carol. She attended Annunciation Academy Catholic School and Pine Bluff High School and then was hired as a chorus girl by Florenz Ziegfeld while visiting her aunt in New York in 1923.[2] The following year, she was cast in the Ziegfeld Follies followed by a role in Earl Carroll's Vanities. While on Broadway in 1927, she was spotted by B.P. Schulberg, production head of Paramount Pictures, and was offered a contract. When she arrived in Hollywood, she was hailed as the next "It girl", replacing Clara Bow.[6] Before the shooting of The Secret Call, Bow had suffered a nervous breakdown, and Shannon was hired to replace her only two days after her arrival in Hollywood.[2][7]
Shannon sometimes worked 16-hour days (from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next day) while shooting a film, and when shooting wrapped, rushed to begin another film. She occasionally worked on two separate films in one day. Through films and publicity, Shannon became known as a fashion plate, wearing styles three months before they became popular. In 1932, she signed a new contract at Fox and became known as difficult and temperamental on the set and was rumored to have had a drinking problem. In 1934, Shannon returned to New York City to do the Broadway show, Page Miss Glory.[2]
In 1935, she continued on Broadway with The Light Behind the Shadow, but was soon replaced, with a press release claiming a tooth infection, though rumors claimed it was her drinking. In 1936, she returned to Hollywood with Youth on Parole. She found it harder to conceal her drinking. Fewer movie roles were offered, and her drinking worsened. She made her last film appearance in the 1940 film Triple Justice, opposite George O'Brien.
Personal life
In 1926, Shannon married her first husband, actor Alan Davis. The marriage ended in July 1940. She married second husband, cameraman Albert G. Roberts, later that year.[2][8]
Death
On May 11, 1941, Shannon's husband Albert Roberts and a fellow studio worker returned from a fishing trip to find Shannon dead in their North Hollywood apartment. She was slumped over the kitchen table, a cigarette in her mouth and an empty glass in her hand. She had been dead for approximately 12 hours. An autopsy revealed that she had died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment and a run-down condition.[2]
She is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Three weeks after Shannon's death, her husband committed suicide by shooting himself with a .22 rifle in the same chair in which she had died. His suicide note read "I am very much in love with my wife, Peggy Shannon. In this spot she died, so in reverence to her, you will find me in the same spot."[9]
Broadway credits
| Date | Production | Role |
|---|---|---|
| October 20, 1923 - May 10, 1924 | Ziegfeld Follies of 1923 | Performer |
| January 11 - March 19, 1927 | Piggy | Performer |
| February 21 - May 1927 | What Ann Brought Home | Alma |
| October 6 - Oct 1927 | High Gear | Florence Ainslee |
| November 26 - December 1928 | Back Here | Sally |
| August 5 - August 1929 | Now-a-Days | Jean Wing |
| November 11 - December 1929 | Cross Roads | Dora |
| December 30, 1929 – January 1930 | Damn Your Honor | Michel Du Fresne |
| December 22, 1930 – Jan 1931 | Life Is Like That | Jane Barton |
| March 11 – March 1931 | Napi | La George |
| November 27, 1934 - March 1935 | Page Miss Glory | Gladys Russell |
| February 10 - February 1936 | Alice Takat | Kitty Linderman |
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | The Gob | Short film | |
| 1931 | Opening Night | Short film | |
| The Meal Ticket | Friend | Short film | |
| The Secret Call | Wanda Kelly | ||
| Silence | Norma Davis/Norma Powers | ||
| The Road to Reno | Lee Millet | ||
| Touchdown | Mary Gehring | ||
| 1932 | This Reckless Age | Mary Burke | |
| Hotel Continental | Ruth Carleton | ||
| Society Girl | Judy Gelett | ||
| The Painted Woman | Kiddo | ||
| False Faces | Elsie Fryer | ||
| 1933 | Girl Missing | Daisy Bradford | |
| Deluge | Claire Arlington | ||
| Devil's Mate | Nancy Weaver | ||
| Turn Back the Clock | Elvina Evans Wright/Elvina Evans Gimlet | ||
| Fury of the Jungle | Joan Leesom | ||
| 1934 | Back Page | Jerry Hampton | |
| 1935 | Night Life of the Gods | Daphne Lambert | |
| Fighting Lady | Dora Hart | ||
| The Case of the Lucky Legs | Thelma Bell | ||
| 1936 | The Man I Marry | Margot Potts | |
| Ellis Island | Betty Parker | ||
| 1937 | Romancing Along | Margot Potts | |
| Youth on Parole | Peggy | ||
| 1938 | Girls on Probation | Inmate Ruth | Uncredited |
| 1939 | Blackwell's Island | Pearl Murray | |
| The Adventures of Jane Arden | Lola Martin | ||
| Fixer Dugan | Aggie Moreno | ||
| The Women | Mrs. Jones | Uncredited | |
| Dad for a Day | Mary Baker | ||
| The Amazing Mr. Williams | Kitty | Uncredited | |
| 1940 | Cafe Hostess | Nellie | |
| The House Across the Bay | Alice | ||
| All About Hash | Edith Henry | Short film | |
| Triple Justice | Susan |
Footnotes
- (Liebman 2003, p. 383)
- "The Private Life and Times of Peggy Shannon". glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com.
- (Shipman Springer 1974, p. 327)
- (Halliwell 2003, p. 422)
- (Donnelley 2003, p. 847)
- (Brettell 2005, p. 252)
- (Soister 2004, p. 148)
- (Star 2001, p. 198)
- (Frasier 2002, p. 264)
Sources
- Brettell, Andrew; King, Noel; Kennedy, Damien; Imwold, Denise; Leonard, Warren Hsu; von Rohr, Heather (2005). Cut!: Hollywood Murders, Accidents, and Other Tragedies. Barrons Educational Series. ISBN 0-7641-5858-9
- Donnelley, Paul (2003). Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries (2 ed.) Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-9512-5
- Frasier, David K. (2002). Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1038-8
- Halliwell, Leslie; Walker, John (2003). Halliwell's Who's Who In the Movies (15. ed.) HarperCollins. p. 422. ISBN 0-06-053423-0
- Liebman, Roy (2003). Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1279-8
- Shipman Springer, John; Hamilton, Jack D. (1974). They Had Faces Then: Super Stars, Stars, and Starlets of the 1930s. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0300-9
- Soister, John T. (2004). Up From the Vault: Rare Thrillers of the 1920s and 1930s. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1745-5
- Star, Jimmy (2001). Barefoot on Barbed Wire: An Autobiography of a Forty-Year Hollywood Balancing Act. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8108-3941-5