Peggy Shannon

Peggy Shannon
File:Peggy Shannon photo.jpg
Born	Winona Sammon (1907-01-10)January 10, 1907 Pine Bluff, Arkansas, U.S.
Died	North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Education	Annunciation Academy Catholic School Pine Bluff High School
Years active	1923–1940
Spouse(s)	Alan Davis (m. 1926; div. 1940) Albert G. Roberts (m. 1940–41)

Peggy Shannon (January 10, 1907 – May 11, 1941) was an American actress. She appeared on the stage and screen of the 1920s and 1930s.

Shannon began her career as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923 before moving on to Broadway productions. She was signed to Paramount Pictures and groomed to replace Clara Bow as the newest "It girl", whom she replaced in the 1931 film, The Secret Call. Her growing dependency on alcohol eventually derailed her career. She appeared in her final film, Triple Justice, in 1940. In May 1941, Shannon died at the age of 34 from a heart attack, brought on by alcoholism. Her husband, Albert G. Roberts, shot himself three weeks after her death.

Career

Shannon was born Winona Sammon in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1907 (some sources erroneously cite 1909 or 1910) to Edward and Nannie Sammon. She had a younger sister, Carol. She attended Annunciation Academy Catholic School and Pine Bluff High School before being hired as a chorus girl by Florenz Ziegfeld while visiting her aunt in New York in 1923. The following year she was cast in the Ziegfeld Follies followed by a role in Earl Carroll's Vanities. While on Broadway in 1927, she was spotted by B. P. Schulberg, production head of Paramount Pictures, and was offered a contract. When she arrived in Hollywood, she was hailed as the next "It girl", replacing the former, Clara Bow. Prior to the shooting of The Secret Call, Bow had suffered a nervous breakdown and Shannon was hired to replace her only two days after her arrival in Hollywood.

Shannon would sometimes work sixteen hour days (from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next day) while shooting a 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, Shannon became known as a fashion plate, wearing styles three months before they became popular. In 1932, she signed a new contract at Fox and became known as difficult and temperamental on the set and was rumored to have had a drinking problem. In 1934, Shannon returned to New York City to do the Broadway show, Page Miss Glory.

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. Fewer movie roles were offered, while her drinking worsened. She made her last film appearance in the 1940 film, Triple Justice, opposite George O'Brien.

Personal life

In 1926, Shannon married her first husband, actor Alan Davis. The marriage ended in July 1940. She married second husband, camera man Albert G. Roberts, later that year.

Death

On May 11, 1941, Shannon's husband Albert Roberts and a fellow studio worker returned from a fishing trip to find Shannon dead in their North Hollywood apartment. She was slumped over the kitchen table, a cigarette in her mouth and an empty glass in her hand. She had been dead for approximately twelve hours. An autopsy later revealed that she had died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment and a run-down condition. She is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery with a tombstone reading "That Red Headed Girl, Peggy Shannon". Three weeks after Shannon's death, her husband committed suicide by shooting himself with a .22 rifle in the same chair in which she had died. His suicide note read, "I am very much in love with my wife, Peggy Shannon. In this spot she died, so in reverence to her, you will find me in the same spot." Roberts is buried in Wee Kirk Churchyard, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California.

Broadway credits

Date	Production	Role
October 20, 1923 - May 10, 1924	Ziegfeld Follies of 1923	Performer
January 11 - March 19, 1927	Piggy	Performer
February 21 - May 1927	What Ann Brought Home	Alma
October 6 - Oct 1927	High Gear	Florence Ainslee
November 26 - December 1928	Back Here	Sally
August 5 - August 1929	Now-a-Days	Jean Wing
November 11 - December 1929	Cross Roads	Dora
December 30, 1929 – January 1930	Damn Your Honor	Michel Du Fresne
December 22, 1930 – Jan 1931	Life is Like That	Jane Barton
March 11 – March 1931	Napi	La George
November 27, 1934 - March 1935	Page Miss Glory	Gladys Russell
February 10 - February 1936	Alice Takat	Kitty Linderman

Filmography

Films

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

Footnotes

Sources

• Brettell, Andrew; King, Noel; Kennedy, Damien; Imwold, Denise; Leonard, Warren Hsu; von Rohr, Heather (2005). Cut!: Hollywood Murders, Accidents, and Other Tragedies. Barrons Educational Series. ISBN 0-7641-5858-9
• Donnelley, Paul (2003). Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries (2 ed.) Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-9512-5
• Frasier, David K. (2002). Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1038-8
• Halliwell, Leslie; Walker, John (2003). Halliwell's Who's Who In the Movies (15. ed.) HarperCollins. p. 422. ISBN 0-06-053423-0
• Liebman, Roy (2003). Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1279-8
• Shipman Springer, John; Hamilton, Jack D. (1974). They Had Faces Then: Super Stars, Stars, and Starlets of the 1930s. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0300-9
• Soister, John T. (2004). Up From the Vault: Rare Thrillers of the 1920s and 1930s. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1745-5
• Star, Jimmy (2001). Barefoot on Barbed Wire: An Autobiography of a Forty-Year Hollywood Balancing Act. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8108-3941-5

External links

• Peggy Shannon at the Internet Broadway Database
• Peggy Shannon at the Internet Movie Database
• Peggy Shannon at AllMovie
• Peggy Shannon at the TCM Movie Database
• Peggy Shannon at Virtual History
• Peggy Shannon at Find a Grave