Margo Woode

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Margo Woode
Born
Valeria Jean Ketcham

(1928-04-20)April 20, 1928
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
DiedSeptember 28, 2018(2018-09-28) (aged 90)
Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1942–1964
Spouse(s)Bill E. Burton (1947-1958, his death)
Ron Beckett (1959-?)

Margo Woode (born Valeria Jean Ketcham, April 20, 1928 – September 28, 2018) was an American actress active in motion pictures and television.

She was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1942 as a member of the studio's stock company, under the professional name Margo Woode.[1] Her film debut was in Springtime in the Rockies (1942), as a bit player.[2][3] She left Fox when her one-year contract expired. One day after her release, she appeared on stage in a local production of the play Stage Door, and Fox executive Joseph Schenck reinstated her at the studio.[4] After a year with no films to her credit, her contract again lapsed, but studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck signed her once more in November 1944.[5] Zanuck placed her immediately into the latest Fox production, which served as her screen test: the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bullfighters (filmed 1944, released 1945).[6] Her small role as a glamour girl (announced by Zanuck as "the feminine lead") is perhaps her most familiar film to today's audiences.

Fox renewed her contract in 1945,[7] and she went on to play featured roles for the studio through 1947. She freelanced for various studios thereafter. Her most prominent roles were as Phyllis in Somewhere in the Night (1946)[3][8] and as the other woman in the movie musical Bop Girl Goes Calypso (1957). She also appeared on television in the 1950s in such programs as Racket Squad and Dragnet.

Personal life

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She married Bill E. Burton, manager of many prominent singers including Dick Haymes and The Andrews Sisters, on July 19, 1947 in Las Vegas, Nevada.[9] Burton died in 1958,[10] and she married Ron Beckett in 1959, with whom she had a daughter, Gigi.

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1942 Springtime in the Rockies Minor Role Uncredited
1945 The Bullfighters Señorita Tangerine
1945 State Fair Girl Uncredited
1945 The Spider Pretty Woman (scenes deleted)
1946 Somewhere in the Night Phyllis
1946 It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog Olive Stone
1946 Wife Wanted Miss Sheldon Uncredited
1947 Moss Rose Daisy Arrow
1950 No Sad Songs for Me Doris Weldon Uncredited
1950 When You're Smiling Linda Reynolds
1952 Racket Squad Kay Wilson Episode: "One More Dream"
1952 My Hero Lulubelle Episode: "The Hillbilly"
1957 Bop Girl Goes Calypso Marion Hendricks
1957 Hell Bound Jan
1958 The Court of Last Resort Episode: "The Arnold McHugh Case"
1961 The Touchables Hilda - Miss Switzerland
1964 Iron Angel Nurse Lt. Laura Fleming (final film role)

References

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  1. ^ Motion Picture Herald, "20th-Fox Has 80 Under Contract", Nov. 21, 1942. p. 32.
  2. ^ "Margo Woode | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie.
  3. ^ a b "Margo Woode". May 26, 2018.
  4. ^ Scott MacGillivray, Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward (Second Edition), iUniverse, 2009, p. 163. ISBN 978-1-4401-7237-3
  5. ^ Hollywood Reporter, "Zanuck Re-Signs Woode", Nov. 14, 1944, p. 3.
  6. ^ MacGillivray, p. 163.
  7. ^ Variety, Nov. 14, 1945, p. 20.
  8. ^ "Margo Woode". BFI. Archived from the original on September 10, 2021.
  9. ^ Variety, July 23, 1947, p. 46.
  10. ^ Variety, Oct. 8, 1958, p. 79.
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