Marguerite Churchill | |
|---|---|
 Churchill in 1929 | |
| Born | December 26, 1910 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | January 9, 2000 (aged 89) Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1922–1952[1] |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3, including Darcy and Orin O'Brien |
Marguerite Churchill (December 26, 1910[2][3] – January 9, 2000) was an American stage and film actress whose career lasted 30 years, from 1922 to 1952. She was John Wayne's first leading lady, in The Big Trail (1930).
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A child actress, Churchill made her first appearance on Broadway on Christmas Day 1922 (a date mistakenly described by some as her 13th birthday). She was later lauded on Broadway as a leading lady at just sixteen years of age. A Fox Film official saw her acting and gave her a contract which shortly afterwards led her to debut on screen in The Diplomats (1929).
Churchill appeared in more than 25 films. She played leading lady to John Wayne in Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail (1930),[4] an early widescreen epic and Wayne's first leading role. She appeared with Wayne the following year in Girls Demand Excitement (1931), with Spencer Tracy and George Raft in Quick Millions (1931), with Will Rogers in Ambassador Bill (1931), with Warner Oland in Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), with George O'Brien in Riders of the Purple Sage (1931), with Charles Farrell in Girl Without a Room (1933), with Ralph Bellamy in The Final Hour (1936), with Boris Karloff in The Walking Dead (1936), and with Edward Van Sloan in Dracula's Daughter (1936).
On Broadway, Churchill performed in And Now Good-bye (1937), Dinner at Eight (1932), The Inside Story (1932), Skidding (1928), The Wild Man of Borneo (1927), House of Shadows (1927), and Why Not? (1922).[5]
After her divorce from O'Brien, she appeared in one movie and a few television plays. In 1954, she announced her engagement to Peter Ganine, a sculptor. In the "California Marriage Index, 1949–1959", there is a record of marriage and file date of June 5, 1954, for Peter Ganine and Marguerite Churchill.[6][7]
