Madge Evans (born Margherita Harrison Evans; July 1, 1909 – April 26, 1981) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress.[2] She began her career as a child performer and model.
Madge Evans | |
|---|---|
 Evans in Broadway to Hollywood (1933) | |
| Born | Margherita Harrison Evans[1] July 1, 1909 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | April 26, 1981 (aged 71) Oakland, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1914–1958 |
| Spouse | Sidney Kingsley (m. 1939) |
| Awards | Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame |
Biography
editChild model and stage actress
editBorn in Manhattan,[3] Madge Evans was featured in print ads as the "Fairy Soap girl" when she was two years old.[4] She made her professional debut at the age of six months, posing as an artist's model. As a youth, her playmates included Robert Warwick, Holbrook Blinn, and Henry Hull. When she was four years old, Evans was featured in a series of child plays produced by William A. Brady. She worked at the old movie studio in Long Island, New York. Her success was immediate, so much so that her mother loaned her daughter's name to a hat company. Evans posed in a mother and child tableau with Anita Stewart, then 16, for an Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company calendar, and as the little mountain girl in Heidi of the Alps.
At the age of 8 in 1917, Evans appeared in the Broadway production of Peter Ibbetson with John Barrymore,[4] Constance Collier and Laura Hope Crews. At 17, she returned to the stage and appeared as the ingenue in Daisy Mayme. Some of her better work in plays came in productions of Dread, The Marquis, and The Conquering Male. Her last appearance was in Philip Goes Forth produced by George Kelley. Evans' mother took her to England and Europe when she was 15.
Film career
editAs a child, Evans debuted in The Sign of the Cross (1914).[4] She appeared in dozens of films, including with Marguerite Clark in The Seven Sisters (1915). She was featured with Robert Warwick in Alias Jimmy Valentine (1915). At 14, she was the star of J. Stuart Blackton's rural melodrama On the Banks of the Wabash (1923). She co-starred with Richard Barthelmess in Classmates (1924).
She was working on stage when she signed with Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1927. As with theater, she continued to play ingenue parts, often as the fiancé of the leading man. She played the love interest to both Al Jolson and Frank Morgan in the 1933 film Hallelujah, I'm a Bum.
Working for MGM in the 1930s, she appeared in Dinner at Eight (1933), Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Hell Below (1933), and David Copperfield (1935). In 1933, she starred with James Cagney in the melodrama The Mayor of Hell. Other notable movies in which she appeared are Beauty for Sale (1933), Grand Canary (1934), What Every Woman Knows (1934), and Pennies From Heaven (1936).
In 1960, for Evans' contribution to the motion picture industry, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1752 Vine Street.[5]
Marriage
editIn York Village, Maine, on July 25, 1939, she married playwright Sidney Kingsley,[6] best known for his plays Dead End and Detective Story. The couple owned a 250-acre (1,000,000 m2) estate in Oakland, New Jersey. Following her marriage to Kingsley, Evans left Hollywood and moved to this home in New Jersey.
Radio and television
editLater, she worked in radio and television in New York City. Evans performed on the Philco Television Playhouse (1949–1950), Studio One (1954), Matinee Theater (1955), and The Alcoa Hour (1956).[citation needed] She was also a panelist on the 1950s version of Masquerade Party.[7]
Death
editEvans died at her home in Oakland, New Jersey, from cancer in 1981, aged 71.[3]
Filmography
edit| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | Shore Acres | Mildred | |
| 1915 | Alias Jimmy Valentine | Child locked in vault | Uncredited |
| The Seven Sisters | Clara | Lost film | |
| The Master Hand | Jean as a child | Lost film | |
| Zaza | Child | Uncredited Lost film | |
| The Little Church Around the Corner | Child | ||
| 1916 | The Devil's Toy | Betty | |
| Sudden Riches | Little Emily | ||
| Husband and Wife | Bessie | ||
| The Revolt | Nannie Stevens | ||
| The Hidden Scar | Dot | Incomplete film | |
| Seventeen | Jane Baxter | Lost film | |
| The New South | Georgia Gwynne as a child | ||
| 1917 | The Web of Desire | Marjorie | Lost film |
| Maternity | Constance | ||
| The Beloved Adventuress | Francine at age 7 | Lost film | |
| The Volunteer | Herself | ||
| The Little Duchess | Geraldine Carmichael | ||
| The Burglar | Editha | ||
| The Corner Grocer | Mary Brian at age 8 | ||
| Adventures of Carol | Carol Montgomery | ||
| The Little Patriot | Undetermined role | Uncredited | |
| 1918 | Woman and Wife | Uncredited Incomplete film | |
| The Gates of Gladness | Beth Leeds | ||
| Wanted: A Mother | Eileen Homer | ||
| True Blue | Girl child | Uncredited | |
| Vengeance | Young Nan as a girl | ||
| Stolen Orders | Ruth Le Page as a child | Lost film | |
| The Golden Wall | Madge Lathroop | ||
| Neighbors | Clarissa Leigh | ||
| Heredity | Nedda Trevor as a child | ||
| The Power and the Glory | Deanie Consadine | ||
| The Love Net | Patty Barnes | ||
| 1919 | The Love Defender | Dolly Meredith | |
| Three Green Eyes | Child | ||
| Home Wanted | Madge Dow | ||
| 1920 | Heidi | Heidi | |
| 1923 | On the Banks of the Wabash | Lisbeth | |
| 1924 | Classmates | Sylvia | Lost film |
| 1930 | Envy | Helen | Short film |
| 1931 | Son of India | Janice Darsey | First film for MGM |
| Sporting Blood | Miss 'Missy' Ruby | ||
| Guilty Hands | Barbara 'Babs' Grant | ||
| Heartbreak | Countess Vima Walden | ||
| West of Broadway | Anne | ||
| 1932 | Lovers Courageous | Mary Blayne | |
| The Greeks Had a Word for Them | Polaire | ||
| Are You Listening? | Laura O'Neil | ||
| Huddle[8] | Rosalie Stone | ||
| Fast Life | Shirley | ||
| 1933 | Hallelujah, I'm a Bum | June Marcher | |
| Hell Below | Joan Standish | ||
| Made on Broadway | Claire Bidwell | ||
| The Nuisance | Dorothy Mason | ||
| The Mayor of Hell | Dorothy Griffith | ||
| Dinner at Eight | Paula Jordan | ||
| Broadway to Hollywood | Anne Ainsley | ||
| Beauty for Sale | Letty Lawson | ||
| Day of Reckoning | Dorothy Day | ||
| 1934 | Fugitive Lovers | Letty Morris | |
| The Show-Off | Amy Fisher Piper | ||
| Stand Up and Cheer! | Mary Adams | ||
| Grand Canary | Lady Mary Fielding | ||
| Paris Interlude | Julia 'Julie' Bell | ||
| Death on the Diamond | Frances Clark | ||
| What Every Woman Knows | Lady Sybil Tenterden | ||
| 1935 | Helldorado | Glenda Wynant | |
| David Copperfield | Agnes Wickfield | ||
| Age of Indiscretion | Maxine Bennett | ||
| Calm Yourself | Rosalind Rockwell | ||
| Men Without Names | Helen Sherwood | ||
| The Tunnel | Ruth McAllan | ||
| 1936 | Exclusive Story | Ann Devlin | |
| Moonlight Murder | Antonia 'Toni' Adams | ||
| Piccadilly Jim | Ann Chester | ||
| Pennies from Heaven | Susan Sprague | ||
| 1937 | Espionage | Patricia Booth | |
| The Thirteenth Chair | Nell O'Neill | ||
| 1938 | Sinners in Paradise | Anne Wesson | |
| Army Girl | Julie Armstrong |
Articles
edit- Los Angeles Times, Marriages In Hollywood Exceed Divorces In 1939, January 2, 1940, Page A1.
- Los Angeles Times, Child Film Star, Ingenue Madge Evans Dies at 71, April 27, 1981, Page A1.
- Oakland, California Tribune, Two Wise Young Maidens, January 10, 1937, Page 80.
- San Mateo Times, A Defence of Youth, January 18, 1936, Page 15.
- Syracuse Herald, Madge Evans, Joan Marsh, and Jackie Coogan head Sextet Surviving, Sunday Morning, July 19, 1931, Section 3, Page 11.
- Zanesville, Ohio Signal, Madge Evans Has Role With James Cagney, July 16, 1933, Page 12.
References
edit- ^ "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909", Margherita Harrison Evans, July 1, 1909, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States; microfilm image (FHL microfilm 1,992,693) of original document in New York Municipal Archives, New York City; accessed online via FamilySearch archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 25, 2024.
- ^ Obituary Variety, April 29, 1981.
- ^ a b Mitgang, Herbert (April 28, 1981). "MADGE EVANS, STAGE-FILM ACTRESS". Obituaries. The New York Times. New York, NY. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
- ^ a b c Fisher, James; Londré, Felicia Hardison (2017). Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 223. ISBN 9781538107867. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- ^ Madge Evans - Hollywood Walk of Fame
- ^ "MADGE EVANS IS WED TO SIDNEY KINGSLEY - Actress and Playwright Marry After Ogunquit Curtain Falls". The New York Times. New York, NY. July 26, 1939. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
- ^ Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 664. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
- ^ "Who's who in the current films". The New York Times. New York, NY. June 19, 1932.
Madge Evans, who is in "Huddle" with Ramon Novarro this week, started out as a pictorial child.
Further reading
edit- Dye, David. Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914-1985. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1988, pp. 70-71.
External links
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