Margaret Lindsay (born Margaret Kies; September 19, 1910 â€" May 9,
1981) was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros.
contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive. She was
noted for her supporting work in successful films of the 1930s and
1940s such as Jezebel (1938) and Scarlet Street (1945) and her leading
roles in lower-budgeted B movie films such as the Ellery Queen series
at Columbia in the early 1940s. Critics regard her portrayal of
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hepzibah Pyncheon in the 1940 film adaptation of
The House of the Seven Gables as Lindsay's standout career role.Born
in Dubuque, Iowa, Lindsay was the eldest of six children of a
pharmacist father who died in 1930. According to Tom Longden of the
Des Moines Register, "Peg" was "a tomboy who liked to climb pear
trees" and was a "roller-skating fiend." She graduated in 1930 from
Visitation Academy in Dubuque.After attending National Park Seminary
in Washington, D.C., Lindsay convinced her parents to enroll her at
the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She went abroad to
England to make her stage debut. She appeared in plays such as Escape,
Death Takes a Holiday, and The Romantic Age. She was often mistaken as
being British due to her convincing English accent. Her fellow
dramatic-school student Robert Cummings was then posing as the
Englishman "Blade Stanhope Conway" and convinced Margaret Kies to
follow his example and adopt a new British identity: Margaret
Lindsay.She impressed Universal Studios enough to sign her for their
1932 version of The Old Dark House. As James Robert Parish and William
T. Leonard wrote in Hollywood Players: The Thirties (Arlington House,
1976), Lindsay returned to America and arrived in Hollywood, only to
discover that Gloria Stuart had been cast in her role in the film.
After some minor roles in Pre-Code films such as Christopher Strong
and the groundbreaking Baby Face, which starred Barbara Stanwyck,
Lindsay was cast in the Fox Film Corporation's award-winning
Cavalcade. Lindsay was selected for a small but memorable role as
Edith Harris, a doomed English bride whose honeymoon voyage takes
place on the Titanic.
1981) was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros.
contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive. She was
noted for her supporting work in successful films of the 1930s and
1940s such as Jezebel (1938) and Scarlet Street (1945) and her leading
roles in lower-budgeted B movie films such as the Ellery Queen series
at Columbia in the early 1940s. Critics regard her portrayal of
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hepzibah Pyncheon in the 1940 film adaptation of
The House of the Seven Gables as Lindsay's standout career role.Born
in Dubuque, Iowa, Lindsay was the eldest of six children of a
pharmacist father who died in 1930. According to Tom Longden of the
Des Moines Register, "Peg" was "a tomboy who liked to climb pear
trees" and was a "roller-skating fiend." She graduated in 1930 from
Visitation Academy in Dubuque.After attending National Park Seminary
in Washington, D.C., Lindsay convinced her parents to enroll her at
the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She went abroad to
England to make her stage debut. She appeared in plays such as Escape,
Death Takes a Holiday, and The Romantic Age. She was often mistaken as
being British due to her convincing English accent. Her fellow
dramatic-school student Robert Cummings was then posing as the
Englishman "Blade Stanhope Conway" and convinced Margaret Kies to
follow his example and adopt a new British identity: Margaret
Lindsay.She impressed Universal Studios enough to sign her for their
1932 version of The Old Dark House. As James Robert Parish and William
T. Leonard wrote in Hollywood Players: The Thirties (Arlington House,
1976), Lindsay returned to America and arrived in Hollywood, only to
discover that Gloria Stuart had been cast in her role in the film.
After some minor roles in Pre-Code films such as Christopher Strong
and the groundbreaking Baby Face, which starred Barbara Stanwyck,
Lindsay was cast in the Fox Film Corporation's award-winning
Cavalcade. Lindsay was selected for a small but memorable role as
Edith Harris, a doomed English bride whose honeymoon voyage takes
place on the Titanic.
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