Peggy Cass

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Peggy Cass (left), James Thurber and Joan Anderson in Broadway revue The Thurber Carnival

Peggy Cass , actually Mary Margaret Cass (born May 21, 1924 in Boston , Massachusetts , † March 8, 1999 in New York City , New York ), was an American actress .

Life

Peggy Cass was born in 1924 (according to other information in 1925 or 1926) as the middle child of Boston sports promoter Raymond James Cass and his wife Margaret (birth name: Loughlin). She attended the Cambridge Latin School for three years. There she was a member of a theater group, but was not given a speaking role. At the age of 18 she moved to New York City, where she worked as a model, secretary and operator, among other things. In 1945 she went to Australia for seven months as a member of the USO of the Doughgirls , where she made her theatrical debut in the role of a Russian sniper . She completed her training with well-known acting teachers such as Uta Hagen , Mira Rostova and Tamara Daykarhanova.

Back in the United States, Cass first appeared on a New York theater stage in 1948 when she took on the role of Maisie in the play Burlesque at the Belasco Theater. She was also won as the understudy of Jan Sterling on Born Yesterday 's US tour . She made her Broadway debut a year later in the musical Touch and Go at the Broadhurst Theater. From the mid-1950s, Cass became increasingly known as a stage and film actress. For the supporting role of the pregnant but unmarried Agnes Gooch in the Broadway comedy Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell , she won the Tony Award and Theater World Award in 1957 . A year later she took over the role of the slightly restricted secretary alongside Russell in the film version The Great Aunt , which earned her a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination.

Cass' appearances in quiz shows (including To Tell the Truth , 1964–1967) increased her popularity enormously, as she had a great deal of general knowledge. She was known as a brisk and jolly woman with a grating voice who, according to her colleague Orson Bean, "could boil off the fat of a taxi driver's neck". In 1978 the musician Gary Senick dedicated the song I'm in Love with Peggy Cass to her . In 1997 she was in front of the camera for a television production for the last time.

On March 8, 1999, Peggy Cass died of heart failure at Sloane-Kettering Hospital in Manhattan. From 1979 until her death, she was married to retired teacher Eugene Feeney, with whom she toured the world in later years. Her first marriage to Carl Fisher ended in divorce.

Plays (selection)

  • 1948: Burlesque (Belasco Theater, New York; role: Maisie)
  • 1949: Touch and Go (Broadhurst Theater, New York; roles: Moonbeam, Olivia, Second Sister)
  • 1950: House on the Cliff (Shubert Theater, New Haven, CT; role: Emily Clayton)
  • 1950: The Live Wire (Playhouse, New York; role: Liz Fargo)
  • 1951: Burlesque (Ziegfeld Theater, New York; role: The Woman Scorned)
  • 1952: Bernardine (Playhouse, New York; role: Helen)
  • 1955: Phoenix '55 Revue (Phoenix Theater, New York)
  • 1955: Othello (City Center Theater, New York; role: Bianca)
  • 1955: Henry IV, Part I (City Center Theater, New York; role: Mistress Quickley)
  • 1956–1958: Auntie Mame (Broadhurst Theater, New York; role: Agnes Gooch)
  • 1960: A Thurber Carnival (American National Theater and Academy, New York)
  • 1963: Children from Their Games (Morosco Theater, New York; role: Vera von Stobel)
  • 1967: Don't Drink the Water (Morosco Theater, New York; role: Marion Hollander)
  • 1969: The Front Page (Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York; role: Mollie Malloy)
  • 1969: Plaza Suite (Plymouth Theater, New York; later Westbury Music Fair, Long Island, 1971)
  • 1972: Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Westbury Music Fair, Long Island)
  • 1978: The Torch-Bearers (McCarter Theater, Princeton, New York)
  • 1979: Once a Catholic (Helen Hayes Theater, New York; role: Mother Basil)
  • 1981: 42nd Street (Majestic Theater, New York; role: Maggie Jones)
  • 1985: The Octette Bridge Club (Music Box Theater, New York; role: Lil)

Filmography (selection)

Awards

  • 1957: Tony Award and Theater World Award for her performance in the play Auntie Mame
  • 1958: Nomination for the Oscar for best supporting actress in The Great Aunt (Auntie Mame)
  • 1958: Nomination for the Golden Globe for best supporting actress in The Great Aunt (Auntie Mame)
  • 1958: 3rd place as best supporting actress and 6th place as best newcomer at the presentation of the Laurel Award

Web links

Commons : Peggy Cass  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Peggy Cass . In: Almanac of Famous People , 9th ed. Thomson Gale, 2007. (accessed June 28, 2009 via Biography Resource Center . Farmington Hills, Mich .: Gale, 2009)
  2. ↑ cf. Peggy Cass . In: Contemporary Theater, Film and Television , Volume 32. Gale Group, 2000. (accessed June 28, 2009 via Biography Resource Center . Farmington Hills, Mich .: Gale, 2009)
  3. ↑ a b cf. Peggy Cass . In: Who's Who in the Theater , 17th ed. Gale Research, 1981. (accessed June 28, 2009 via Biography Resource Center . Farmington Hills, Mich .: Gale, 2009)
  4. ↑ cf. Peggy Cass . In: People Weekly 51 (March 29, 1999), No. 11, p. 124
  5. ↑ cf. Peggy Cass . In: Contemporary Theater, Film, and Television , Volume 3. Gale Research, 1986. (accessed June 28, 2009 via Biography Resource Center . Farmington Hills, Mich .: Gale, 2009)
personal data
SURNAME Cass, Peggy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cass, Mary Margaret (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts , United States
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1999
Place of death New York City , New York , United States