Actors - Peggy Shannon

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	Actors - Peggy Shannon

Peggy Shannon was a film and stage actress in the 1920s and 1930s. She was born Winona Sammon in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on January 10, 1906 or 1910.

In 1923, at approximately age 17, Peggy becomes the latest edition to the Ziegfeld Follies. She prepared for six weeks and began her stage work, becoming a stage dancer for two seasons. She desired to do serious dramatic stage work and within a three year period (1926 - 1929) she appeared in fifteen shows, none of which had an extended run. During this period, she met and married fellow actor Alan Davis. While on Broadway in 1931, Peggy was spotted by B. P. Schulberg, production head of Paramount Pictures, and was offered a contract. When Peggy arrived in Hollywood she was hailed as the next 'It' girl, replacing the former, Clara Bow. During the shooting of The Secret Call, Clara Bow suffered a nervous breakdown, and Peggy was hired to replace her only two days after arriving in Hollywood. She would sometimes work 16 hour days (from 10AM to 4AM the next day) while shooting the film, and when shooting wrapped would rush to begin another film. She would occasionally work on two separate films in one day. Through films and publicity, Peggy became known as a fashion plate, wearing styles three months before they become popular. In 1932, Peggy signed a new contract at Fox studios and became known as difficult and temperamental on the set and ws rumoured to have a drinking problem. In 1934, Peggy returns to New York to do the Broadway show Page Miss Glory, playing the girlfriend of then unknown Jimmy Stewart. 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.

In 1940, Peggy married cameraman/actor Albert G. Roberts. Fewer movie roles were offered, while Peggy's drinking worsened. On May 11, 1941, Albert and a fellow studio worker return from a fishing trip to find Peggy dead. She was slumped over the kitchen table, a cigarette in her mouth and an empty glass in her hand. She has 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. She was only in her 30s. She was later interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery with a tombstone reading "That Red Headed Girl, Peggy Shannon." Three weeks after Peggy's death her husband committed suicide, shooting himself with a .22 rifle in the same chair that Peggy died. His suicide note read, "I am very much in love with my wife, Peggy Shannon. In this spot she passed away, so in reverence to her, you will find me in the same spot." Albert Roberts is buried in Wee Kirk Churchyard, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California shortly after.

Filmography

Triple Justice (1940) .... Susan
All About Hash (1940) .... Mickey's mother
The House Across the Bay (1940) .... Alice
Cafe Hostess (1940) .... Nellie
The Amazing Mr. Williams (1939) .... Kitty
Dad for a Day (1939) .... Mary Baker
The Women (1939) .... Mrs. Jones
Fixer Dugan (1939) .... Aggie Moreno
The Adventures of Jane Arden (1939) .... Lola Martin
Blackwell's Island (1939) .... Pearl Murray
Girls on Probation (1938) .... Ruth
Youth on Parole (1937) .... Peggy
Romancing Along (1937)
Ellis Island (1936) .... Betty Parker
The Man I Marry (1936) .... Margot Potts
The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935) .... Thelma Bell
The Fighting Lady (1935)
The Night Life of the Gods (1935) .... Daphne Lambert
The Back Page (1934) .... Jerry Hampton
Fury of the Jungle (1933) .... Joan Leesom
Turn Back the Clock (1933) .... Elvina Evans Wright/Gimlet
The Devil's Mate (1933) .... Nancy Weaver
Deluge (1933) .... Claire Arlington
Girl Missing (1933) .... Daisy Bradford
False Faces (1932) .... Elsie Fryer
The Painted Woman (1932) .... Kiddo
Society Girl (1932) .... Judy Gelett
Hotel Continental (1932) .... Ruth
This Reckless Age (1932) .... Mary Burke
The Road to Reno (1931) .... Lee Millet
Silence (1931) .... Norma Davis/Norma Powers
The Secret Call (1931) .... Wanda Kelly
The Gob (1930)
Opening Night (1930)

Stage Work

Alice Takat (1936)
Page Miss Glory (1934-1935)
Napi (1931)
Life is Like That (1930-1931)
Damn Your Honor(1929 - 1930)
Cross Roads (1929)
Now-a-Days (1929)
Back Here (1928)
High Gear (1927)
What Ann Brought Home (1927)
Ziegfeld Follies of 1923 (1923-1924)

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