Peggy Stratford(1909-2002)

This pretty brunette actress with an all-too-brief career in pictures was born Muriel James to American parents Felix and Lucille James in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. With her parents, she moved back to the U.S. as a small child around 1911 and in her teens trained for acting at the Cumnock School of Expression in Los Angeles. She later pursued studies at the University of California. Peggy was apparently quite good at tennis and in 1927 married a fellow player named Gerald Stratford. They divorced eight years later in 1935. Her proper acting career began on the west coast stage in Dangerous Corner, The Late Christopher Bean and other plays, prior to entering films in 1934 (she also went on tour with the well-known actor Paul Lukas). Peggy had a supporting role in Republic's The Leavenworth Case (1936) and was then signed by Columbia in 1937 to play the female lead in two sprightly back-to-back Charles Starrett second feature westerns, Trapped (1937) and Two Gun Law (1937). She had a busy year, as she also fronted up partnering Charley Chase in three short comedies. Just when it seemed her career was finally taking off, Peggy called it quits and left the industry. She was last heard of working on the production staff of WNYC radio in New York in 1943.