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In Remembrance: Peggy
Ryan
Peggy Ryan, the tap dancer who partnered with Donald O’Connor in a dozen
film musicals has passed away in Las Vegas on Saturday October 30, 2004. She
was 80.
Born Margaret O’Rene Ryan on August 28, 1924 in Long Beach, California, Ryan
grew up in a show business family. By the age of three she was dancing in
her parents’ vaudeville act, the Dancing Ryan. She made her motion picture
debut at age 6 in the Warner Brothers musical short The Wedding Of Jack
And Jill (1937). The film also marked the debut of the Three Gumm
Sisters, one of whom would change her name and attain stardom as Judy
Garland.
In
1937, Ryan was spotted George Murphy who convinced director Ralph Murphy (no
relation) to cast her in his new film at Universal Pictures, the musical
Top Of The Town, where she performed a dance number opposite Murphy.
Following Top Of The Town, Ryan filmed the drama Women Men Marry
(1937) at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. She then made The Flying Irishman
(1939) at RKO Studios and She Married A Cop (1939) at Republic Pictures.
After a pair of pictures at 20th Century Fox, The Grapes Of
Wrath and Sailor’s Lady ( both 1940), Ryan landed back at
Universal Pictures where she was cast opposite Donald O’Connor in What’s
Cooking? (1942) which headlined the singing group the Andrews Sisters.
The two were paired in the following two Andrews Sisters films- Private
Buckaroo and Give Out, Sisters (both 1942).
The two were then paired in another eight films over the following three
years including When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again (1943), Top
Man (1944), Chip Off The Old Block (1944), The Merry Monahans
(1944) and Bowery To Broadway (1944). There last film together was
1945’s Patrick The Great. She also appeared in the Here Comes The
Co-Eds (1945) with comedy team Abott and Costello. Ryan would go on to
star in another pair of musicals for Universal- That’s The Spirit and
On Stage Everybody (both 1945). Her final film for the studio was the
comedy Men In Her Diary (1945).
In
1945 she married James Cross and retired from the screen from motion
pictures. She re-emerged in 1949 for a pair of musicals- There’s A Girl
In My Heart with Lee Bowman and Shamrock Hill with dancer Ray
MacDonald.
Her last film was 1953’s All Ashore with Mickey Rooney and MacDonald.
Shortly after the completion of the picture she married MacDonald. They
spent time traveling the world performing in various stage revues. They
divorced in 1957 and in the following year moved to Hawaii following her
marriage to novelist Eddie Sherman, where she taught dancing at the
University of Hawaii. In 1969 she landed a recurring role on the television
series Hawaii Five-O and stayed with the series through 1976. She
stayed close friends with O’Connor and re-teamed with him for his stage show
Me And My Shadow in 1987 at the Los Angeles Greek Theater.
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