Peggy Knudsen

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Peggy Knudsen (born April 22, 1923 in Duluth , Minnesota as Margaret Ann Knudsen , † July 11, 1980 in Encino , California ) was an American actress.

life and career

Peggy Knudsen, the daughter of a fire chief with Norwegian roots, worked as an actress since the early 1940s. She initially worked in radio and Broadway theater productions before she was discovered by Hollywood. The attractive blonde made her film debut in 1946 with a supporting role in Curtis Bernhardt's film drama The Big Lie alongside Bette Davis and Glenn Ford . In the same year Knudsen also starred in the Joan Crawford drama Humoreske and in the film noir classic Dead Sleeping , where she played a small but piquant role as a gangster bride alongside Humphrey Bogart . Although her career got off to a promising start and she also received good reviews, her film studio usually only cast her in unsympathetic roles as an unfaithful wife or as a love rival to the leading actress. As a rule, she had to be content with roles in B-films from the late 1940s .

The actress was married three times, all marriages ended in divorce. With her second husband, the filmmaker Jim Jordan (1923-1998), whom she married in 1949, she had three daughters in the 1950s. For a while, she largely said goodbye to acting, but in 1955 she experienced a small comeback with one of the leading roles in the television series So This Is Hollywood . In 1955 she also played an important role in the prison film Unchained , which is mainly remembered today for its famous film song Unchained Melody . In 1957 she took on her last film role alongside Errol Flynn in the adventure film Istanbul . Until the mid-1960s, Knudsen could still be seen in guest roles in a few television series, then she had to retire completely from professional life because of a serious arthritis illness. In the last years of her life, Knudsen had to be looked after by her good friend Jennifer Jones . She died of cancer in 1980 at the age of 57.

A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame bears her name for Peggy Knudsen's television work .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1946: The Big Lie (A Stolen Life)
  • 1946: The Big Sleep (The Big Sleep)
  • 1946: Humoresque (Humoresque)
  • 1946: Shadow of a Woman
  • 1947: Adultery (The Unfaithful)
  • 1947: My Wild Irish Rose
  • 1948: Trouble Preferred
  • 1950: Flaming Valley (Copper Canyon)
  • 1955: Escape (Unchained)
  • 1955: So This Is Hollywood (TV series, 24 episodes)
  • 1955: Betrayed Woman
  • 1955: Good Morning, Miss Fink (Good Morning, Miss Dove)
  • 1956: The Bottom of the Bottle
  • 1957: Istanbul
  • 1958/1959: Perry Mason (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1960–1965: The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (TV series, 4 episodes)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Knudsen in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved September 3, 2016. , Norway is given as the country of birth
  2. ↑ Peggy Knudsen at GlaumourGirls of the Screen
  3. ^ Peggy Knudsen in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b Peggy Knudsen article in the Los Angeles Times
personal data
SURNAME Knudsen, Peggy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Knudsen, Margaret Ann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Duluth , Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1980
Place of death Encino , California