
Marguerite Churchill
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1910-12-26
Day of Death
2000-01-09 (89 years old)
Place of Birth
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Marguerite Churchill
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marguerite Churchill (December 26, 1910 – January 9, 2000) was an American film actress appearing in more than 25 films with a career spanning from 1929 to 1952. She is best known today as John Wayne's first leading lady, in The Big Trail (1930).
She was the daughter of a producer who owned a chain of theaters, but he died when she was ten years old. She was educated in New York City at the Professional Children's School and the Theatre Guild Dramatic School. She appeared on stage and was applauded on Broadway as a leading lady when just sixteen years old. An official of the Fox Company saw her acting and gave her a contract which shortly afterwards led her to debut on screen in The Diplomats.
Churchill played leading lady to John Wayne in Howard Hawk's The Big Trail (1930), 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).
She died on January 9, 2000, aged 89, from natural causes in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. She was survived by her daughter, Orin.
Known For
Acting
(2023)
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1950)
Bunco Squad
as Barbara Madison
(1936)
Dracula's Daughter
as Janet
(1936)
The Walking Dead
as Nancy
(1936)
Legion of Terror
as Nancy Foster
(1936)
Murder by an Aristocrat
as Nurse Sally Keating
(1936)
Alibi for Murder
as Lois Allen
(1936)
The Final Hour
as Flo Russell
(1936)
Man Hunt
as Jane Carpenter
(1935)
Speed Devils
as Pat Corey
(1935)
Without Children
as Sue Cole
(1933)
Girl Without a Room
as Kay Loring
(1932)
Forgotten Commandments
as Marya Ossipoff
(1931)
Charlie Chan Carries On
as Pamela Potter
(1931)
Quick Millions
as Dorothy Stone
(1931)
Riders of the Purple Sage
as Jane Withersteen
(1931)
Ambassador Bill
as Queen Vanya
(1931)
Girls Demand Excitement
as Miriam
(1930)
The Big Trail
as Ruth Cameron
(1930)
Born Reckless
as Rosa Beretti
(1930)
Good Intentions
as Helen Rankin
(1930)
Harmony at Home
as Louise Haller
(1929)
The Valiant
as Mary Douglas
(1929)
They Had to See Paris
as Opal Peters
(1929)
Seven Faces
as Hélène Berthelot
(1929)