Margaret Sheridan (actress)

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Margaret Elizabeth Sheridan (born October 29, 1926 in Los Angeles , † May 1, 1982 in Orange , California) was an American actress .

Life

Sheridan, who worked as a stewardess and photo model prior to her film career, was discovered for acting by director and producer Howard Hawks . Hawks offered her the female lead in his western Red River in 1948 , but Sheridan refused because she was expecting their first child. A year earlier she had married the pilot William Pattison.

Her first and most important role was that of the scientific assistant Nikki Nicholson in the science fiction classic The Thing from Another World from 1951, which was produced and partly shot by Hawks. What was remarkable about her role was that she - contrary to the zeitgeist of the time - embodied an intelligent, headstrong and hard-drinking heroine. Usually, the task of female actresses in the horror films of the fifties was to scream and throw themselves at the hero's chest for help ( scream queen ).

Several roles in movies followed, including the war film Korea ( One minute to zero ) starring Robert Mitchum in 1952 and the crime film I'm the judge (from the Mike Hammer series) a year later. She also took on various guest roles in TV series. However, the rise to popular character actress hoped for by her sponsor Hawks did not materialize. Hawks attributed this to the fact that Sheridan had changed a lot through her duties as a family mother. Her acting career finally ended in the late 1960s. Margaret Sheridan died of lung cancer on May 1, 1982 in Orange, California at the age of 56.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Todd McCarthy: Howard Hawks: the Gray Fox of Hollywood , Grove Press 1997

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sheridan, Margaret
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sheridan, Margaret Elizabeth (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1982
Place of death Orange , California