Biography

Peggy Shannon

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Overview

Born
January 10, 1907 · Pine Bluff, Arkansas, USA
Died
May 11, 1941 · North Hollywood, California, USA (heart attack)
Birth name
Winona Sammon
Height
5′ 4½″ (1.64 m)

Biography

Peggy Shannon was born Winona Sammon on January 10, 1907, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She attended Catholic school where she became friends with child actress Madge Evans. While visiting her aunt in New York sixteen year old Peggy was discovered by producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.. He hired her as a chorus girl in The Ziegfeld Follies. Peggy married actor Alan Davis in 1926. The following year she was starring on Broadway in Earl Carrol's production of What Anne Brought Home. In 1931 she was offered a contract at Paramount studios. With her beautiful face and red hair Peggy was promoted as "the new Clara Bow". When Clara suffered a nervous breakdown Peggy was given her role in The Secret Call (1931). Although she starred in the films This Reckless Age (1931) and Hotel Continental (1932), her career never really took off. She also developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. After her movie contract was not renewed she tried returning to Broadway. Unfortunately by this time she had serious drinking problem and was fired from the play The Light Behind The Shadow. Peggy continued to get small parts in B-movies like Youth on Parole (1937) and Cafe Hostess (1940). She divorced Alan in 1940 and married camera man Al Roberts. On May 11, 1941 her husband returned home from a trip and found Peggy slumped over the kitchen table. She had died from a heart attack at the young age of thirty-four. Her autopsy revealed that she had a serious liver ailment caused by her alcoholism. Three weeks after her death Albert committed suicide. Peggy is buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Hollywood, California. The epitaph on her tombstone says "That Red Headed Girl, Peggy Shannon".
- IMDb mini biography by: Elizabeth Ann

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Trivia

On May 11, 1941, Shannon's second husband, Albert G. Roberts (born 11 October 1902), and his friend found Shannon slumped over the kitchen table dead with her head down on her arms, a cigarette in her mouth, and an empty glass in her hand. 19 days after Shannon's death, Roberts fatally shot himself right on the spot where she died.
Appeared in a Broadway play "Page Miss Glory" which opened November 27th, 1934 as the girlfriend of a then-unknown Jimmy Stewart.
From 1937, her career was increasingly afflicted by alcoholism.
In 1931, Paramount's Bud Schulberg signed her up to replace the "It" girl, Clara Bow in the movie "Secret Call" after Bow suffered a nervous breakdown.
Was a Ziegfield Girl for a while in the twenties.