Peggy Shannon

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credits

by Hans J. Wollstein film biography

Another Hollywood hard-luck case, red-haired Peggy Shannon (born Winona Sammon) was brought in by producer B.P. Schulberg as a replacement for Clara Bow, who had suffered a nervous breakdown during the production of The Secret Call (1931). Shannon earned heaps of publicity, and along with Sylvia Sidney, was considered Bow's replacement in more ways than one.

No overnight success, Shannon had studied dance with famous choreographer Ned Wayburn and had made her stage bow in the 1923 version of the Ziegfeld Follies. She returned for the 1924 show, which featured Will Rogers and Ann Pennington, and appeared in two subsequent editions of Earl Carroll's rival Vanities. Her acting debut came opposite Humphrey Bogart's wife, Mayo Methot, in What Ann Brought Home (1927), and she later interrupted an already waning Hollywood career to star in Page Miss Glory in 1934.

Although she certainly was easy on the eyes, Shannon did not have what it takes to become a screen star. In film after film, the expected sparks stubbornly refused to ignite and she was soon appearing in Grade-B assignments. The return to Broadway did little for her stature in Hollywood and by the late '30s, Shannon was playing bits. Divorced from actor Alan Davis, she remarried photographer Albert G. Roberts and it was he who found her slumped over a kitchen table in their North Hollywood home, dead from a liver ailment caused by acute alcoholism. Tragically, Roberts committed suicide less than three weeks later.

filmography snapshot

1925

1930

1935

1940

1945

Year	Title	Rating
1931	Silence Actor
1931	The Road to Reno Actor
1931	The Secret Call Actor
1931	Touchdown Actor
1932	False Faces Actor
1932	Hotel Continental Actor
1932	Painted Woman Actor
1932	Society Girl Actor
1932	This Reckless Age Actor
1933	Devil's Mate Actor
1933	Girl Missing Actor
1933	The Deluge Actor
1933	Turn Back the Clock Actor
1934	Back Page Actor
1934	Fury of the Jungle Actor
1935	Fighting Lady Actor
1935	Night Life of the Gods Actor
1935	The Case of the Lucky Legs Actor
1936	Ellis Island Actor
1936	The Man I Marry Actor
1937	Youth on Parole Actor
1938	Dad for a Day Actor
1938	Girls on Probation Actor
1939	Blackwell's Island Actor
1939	Fixer Dugan Actor
1939	Street of Missing Men Actor
1939	The Adventures of Jane Arden Actor
1939	The Women Actor
1940	All About Hash Actor
1940	Cafe Hostess Actor
1940	The House Across the Bay Actor
1940	Triple Justice Actor

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Active

1931 - 1940

Born

January 10, 1910 in Pine Bluff, AR

Died

May 11, 1941 in North Hollywood, CA

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