Marguerite Churchill
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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.
Acting
Movie
Dracula's Daughter
as Janet
1936
Movie
The Big Trail
as Ruth Cameron
1930
Movie
The Walking Dead
as Nancy
1936
Movie
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2023
Movie
The Valiant
as Mary Douglas
1929
Movie
Born Reckless
as Rosa Beretti
1930
Movie
Quick Millions
as Dorothy Stone
1931
Movie
Bunco Squad
as Barbara Madison
1950
Movie
They Had to See Paris
as Opal Peters
1929
Movie
Ambassador Bill
as Queen Vanya
1931
TV
Fireside Theater
1949
Movie
Girl Without a Room
as Kay Loring
1933
Movie
Charlie Chan Carries On
as Pamela Potter
1931
Movie
Speed Devils
as Pat Corey
1935
Movie
Legion of Terror
as Nancy Foster
1936
Movie
Alibi for Murder
as Lois Allen
1936
Movie
Murder by an Aristocrat
as Sally Keating
1936
Movie
Forgotten Commandments
as Marya Ossipoff
1932
Movie
The Final Hour
as Flo Russell
1936
Movie
Furnace Trouble
1929
Movie
Good Intentions
as Helen Rankin
1930
Movie
Girls Demand Excitement
as Miriam
1931
Movie
Riders of the Purple Sage
as Jane Withersteen
1931
Movie
Man Hunt
as Jane Carpenter
1936