Margaret Kerry

Margaret Kerry
File:Margaret Kerry 1.jpg Margaret Kerry signing autographs, September 2007
Born	Peggy Lynch (1929-05-11) May 11, 1929 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress Motivational speaker Radio host
Years active	1933–present
Spouse(s)	John H. Willcox (August 16, 1987 - December 23, 1999; his death) Dick Brown (October 6, 1951 - June 1, 1984; marriage dissolved); 3 children
Website	Margaret Kerry official website

Margaret Kerry (born Peggy Lynch, May 11, 1929) is an American actress, motivational speaker and radio host, best known for her 1953 work as the model for Tinker Bell in the Walt Disney Pictures animated feature, Peter Pan.

Career

Born in Los Angeles, California, Lynch worked under her real name as a dancer and actor in three of the Our Gang comedy shorts. She attracted the attention of Eddie Cantor, who cast her in the role of his teenage daughter in the film If You Knew Susie. Cantor thought Lynch needed a more theatrical sounding name to be more noticeable as an actor, so she officially became Margaret Kerry. She graduated from high school with honors while working on the film and would later graduate cum laude from Los Angeles City College.

Television work

Still a teenager, Kerry played the role of "Sharon" in one of the first network sitcoms, The Ruggles, on ABC-TV. The show's farewell episode at the end of its three year run featured Sharon's wedding and honeymoon. Kerry also appeared in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, and a 1950 episode of The Lone Ranger. A voiceover performer with twenty-one dialects and forty-eight character voices, Kerry provided voices on 52 episodes of the groundbreaking children's television show, Clutch Cargo, including characters "Paddlefoot" and "Spinner". She provided numerous voices and live-action lead-ins for The New Three Stooges and Space Angel animated series for Cambria Productions.

Work with Disney

Kerry answered an audition call during the planning stages of the animated feature film Peter Pan. The audition, supervised by animator Marc Davis, required her to pantomime the motions that would be animated as Tinker Bell. She won the part and spent six months at the Disney Studios on a mostly empty sound stage pantomiming the part. The studios provided props, notably a giant keyhole mounted on a stand as well as a pair of giant scissors, used in the scene where Tinker Bell became trapped in a jewelry box.

Radio

Since 1992, Kerry has been a producer, writer and host of "What's Up Weekly" on KKLA-FM Los Angeles, a Christian radio station. The station's community services director, she heads an outreach program that connects to more than 200 non-profit service agencies. She attends conventions and signs autographs, including the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention.

She is a certified seminar leader by the American Seminar Leaders Association and co-author and facilitator of the FUNdamentals of Speaking Seminars.