Peggy Dow

Peggy Dow (* 18th March 1928 in Columbia , Mississippi , as Peggy Josephine Varnadow ) is a former American actress .

life and career

Peggy Josephine Varnadow was born to a businessman in the city of Columbia. At the age of four, she and her family moved to Covington , Louisiana . Varnadow spent high school and early college years at Gulf Park College, Gulfport , and graduated from Northwestern University in Illinois in 1948 . It was there that she discovered her interest in acting and played in the college's drama group. After working briefly as a model and radio station, she discovered an agent for the television series Your Show Time . Varnadow made her film debut later that year in the thriller Deadly Pull, starring Scott Brady and Bruce Bennett . Her long name was then shortened to Peggy Dow.

Deadly Suction was the start of a successful but extremely short career of nine films. She had her greatest success in 1950 as a lovely nurse on the side of James Stewart in the comedy My Friend Harvey . In August of this year she was featured on the cover of Life magazine. In 1951, Dow played the lead female role in the drama Victory Over the Dark alongside Arthur Kennedy , who received an Oscar nomination for his performance.

In the same year she retired from the film business after only three years to marry Walter Helmerich III, the co-owner of one of the largest oil drilling companies in the USA. They stayed married for over 60 years until Walter passed away in January 2012 at the age of 88. The couple has five sons. Dow took on her husband's last name and, as Peggy V. Helmerich, was involved in numerous charitable activities as a philanthropist for decades . The Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award is named after her and has been presented to internationally renowned authors since 1985.

Filmography

• 1949: Your Show Time (TV series, episode)
• 1949: Deadly Suction (Undertow)
• 1950: Your Life in My Hand (Woman in Hiding)
• 1950: Without scruples (Shakedown)
• 1950: The Sleeping City
• 1950: My friend Harvey (Harvey)
• 1951: Victory over the Dark (Bright Victory)
• 1951: You Never Can Tell
• 1951: Reunion in Reno
• 1951: In the Storm of Time (I Want You)

Web links

• Peggy Dow in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Peggy Dow in the German dubbing file

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary for Walter Helmerich III
2. ↑ Article about Peggy Dow ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.