Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Graham Churchill was an American stage and film actress whose career spanned 30 years, from 1922 to 1952. Marguerite made her debut as a child actress on Broadway in 1922. She debuted onscreen in 1929, and appeared in more than 25 films. She frequently appeared in westerns such as Riders of the Purple Sage and was John Wayne's first leading lady in The Big Trail. She also appeared in action films and in mysteries such as Charlie Chan Carries On.
Career
Marguerite Graham Churchill was born on December 26, 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri. She was a daughter of movie producer Edward Paycen Churchill, who died on December 11, 1920.Churchill attended the Professional Children's School in New York City, with Milton Berle among others. She also attended the Theatre Guild Dramatic School in Manhattan where she worked with Winifred Lenihan, winning both the Winthrop Ames and Otto H. Khan scholarships.
A child actress, Churchill made her Broadway debut on Christmas Day 1922, the day before her 12th birthday. The show was Why Worry?. At sixteen, Churchill was described as "an outstanding ingenue lead" for her role in The House of Shadows. In 1932, she appeared in the first Broadway production of “Dinner at Eight".
Fox Films offered her a contract which led to her screen debut in the comedy short The Diplomats. Her first feature-length film was The Valiant in which she appeared with Paul Muni and John Mack Brown.
Over the course of her career, Churchill appeared in more than 25 films. She played leading lady to John Wayne in Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail, an early widescreen epic and Wayne's first leading role. She appeared with Wayne again in Girls Demand Excitement, with Spencer Tracy and George Raft in Quick Millions, with Will Rogers in Ambassador Bill, with Warner Oland in Charlie Chan Carries On, with her future husband George O'Brien in Riders of the Purple Sage, with Charles Farrell in Girl Without a Room, with Ralph Bellamy in The Final Hour, with Boris Karloff in The Walking Dead, and with Edward Van Sloan in Dracula's Daughter.
On Broadway, Churchill performed in And Now Good-bye, Dinner at Eight, The Inside Story, Skidding, The Wild Man of Borneo, House of Shadows, and Why Not?.
Personal life
Churchill married actor George O'Brien on July 15, 1933. Their first child, Brian, died 10 days after his birth. Their daughter, Orin O'Brien, became a double bassist for the New York Philharmonic. Their youngest child, Darcy O'Brien, was an author and college professor. Churchill and O'Brien divorced in 1948. Darcy O'Brien's novel Margaret in Hollywood has been described as loosely based upon his mother's life.On June 5, 1954, Churchill married sculptor Peter Ganine. That union also ended in divorce.
Marguerite Churchill died on January 9, 2000, aged 89, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, from natural causes.