Biography

Peggy Cass

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Mary Margaret Cass was born May 21, 1924, in Boston, Massachusetts. After three years in the Cambridge Latin School drama club without one speaking part, she moved to New York, where she worked as a secretary, telephone operator, advertising solicitor and model. She joined a USO troupe that took her to Australia for seven months, but she did not appear in any shows (the U.S. troops had moved on). As understudy, she took Jan Sterling's part in a national tour of "Born Yesterday," finally being cast in her own right in the 1949 Broadway musical "Touch and Go." The mid 1950s brought her the defining role of Agnes Gooch in Auntie Mame (1958), her stage and screen performances earning her a Tony and an Oscar nomination, respectively. From then on, she was best known for her regular television quiz show appearances: Keep Talking (1958), Match Game (1973), Password (1961), and To Tell the Truth (1956). She was very smart and very funny, but her signature was her unmistakably raspy voice. She died on March 8, 1999, at Manhattan's Sloane-Kettering Hospital of heart failure.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

In a botched 1980 surgical procedure, Dr. Norman Scott, longtime physician for the New York Knicks (1978-2005), operated on Peggy's right knee instead of her injured left knee. After she noticed the mix-up in the recovery room, he had to wheel her back in and fix the other one. She sued him for malpractice and was awarded $460,000 in 1985.
She had an encyclopedic mind and appeared in many TV quiz shows in the 1960s.
Was one of Jack Paar's stable of comedy players during his run as host of The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957) from 1958 to 1962, a period in which she also appeared regularly as a panelist on numerous game shows.
Won Broadway's 1957 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "Auntie Mame," a part that she recreated in an Oscar-nominated performance in the film version of the same name, Auntie Mame (1958).
Upon her death, her remains were interred at Church of the Ascension Cemetery in Greenwich Village in New York City.

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