Madeleine Carroll

Edith Madeleine Carroll, born on 26 February 1906 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, and died on 2 October 1987, was an English actress who achieved prominence in both Britain and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. The daughter of John O'Carroll, an Irish professor of languages from County Limerick, and his French wife Helene, Carroll grew up at 32 Herbert Street in West Bromwich. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in languages from the University of Birmingham, where she also participated in productions with the Birmingham University Dramatic Society. After graduating, she worked for a year as a French mistress at a girls' school in Hove before pursuing a career on stage.

Despite her father's opposition to acting, Carroll left teaching with her mother's encouragement and traveled to London to seek stage work. Having won a beauty contest, she secured a position in Seymour Hicks' touring company and made her stage debut in 1927 in The Lash. Her screen debut followed in 1928 in The Guns of Loos, and that same year she appeared in The First Born alongside Miles Mander, a film written by Alma Reville. Through Reville she came to meet Reville's husband, Alfred Hitchcock. Carroll was the lead in What Money Can Buy (1928) and went on to appear in a series of British productions including The Crooked Billet (1929), The American Prisoner (1929), and Atlantic (1930). On stage during this period she appeared in The Roof (1929) for Basil Dean, as well as productions of The Constant Nymph, Mr. Pickwick opposite Charles Laughton, and an adaptation of Beau Geste. She also took the title role in the play Little Catherine. Her performance in I Was a Spy (1933), directed by Victor Saville, earned her a best actress award for that year.

Carroll's career reached a turning point when Hitchcock cast her in The 39 Steps (1935), an espionage thriller based on the novel by John Buchan. The role established her as the director's earliest prototypical cool, intelligent blonde heroine, a type Hitchcock himself described by saying how well Carroll fitted the part after he had heard of her as a tall, cold, blonde beauty and resolved to present her as her natural self. The New York Times cited her performance as charming and skillful, and the film became a major sensation. The following year Hitchcock cast her again in Secret Agent (1936), a spy thriller based on a work by W. Somerset Maugham, pairing her with John Gielgud after Robert Donat's recurring health problems prevented a reunion with her 39 Steps co-star. The 39 Steps was later ranked fourth in the BFI Top 100 British Films.

Her success in The 39 Steps made Carroll the first British actress to be offered a major American film contract. She signed with Paramount Pictures and appeared opposite George Brent in The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936), then followed with The General Died at Dawn (1936). Borrowed by 20th Century Fox, she played the female lead in Lloyd's of London (1936), the film that launched Tyrone Power to stardom, and remained at the studio for the musical On the Avenue (1937) with Dick Powell and Alice Faye. David O. Selznick cast her as Ronald Colman's love interest in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), a box-office success. Walter Wanger placed her opposite Henry Fonda in Blockade (1938), a film about the Spanish Civil War, and by that year Carroll was the world's highest-paid actress. She continued at Paramount in comedies with Fred MacMurray, including Cafe Society (1939) and Honeymoon in Bali (1939), and received top billing in My Son, My Son! (1940) with Brian Aherne. Cecil B. DeMille directed her opposite Gary Cooper in North West Mounted Police (1940), and she appeared with Bob Hope in My Favorite Blonde (1942).

Carroll was also active in radio. She participated in the NBC discussion program The Circle in 1939, which addressed current events, literature, and drama on a weekly basis. In 1944 she hosted This Is the Story, an anthology series dramatizing famous novels on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Later she starred in the NBC soap opera The Affairs of Dr. Gentry from 1957 to 1959 and rotated as a lead performer in The NBC Radio Theater in 1959.

In 1948, Carroll made her Broadway debut at the tail end of a distinguished screen career, playing Agatha Reed in Fay Kanin's Goodbye, My Fancy. The role was later portrayed by Joan Crawford in the 1951 film adaptation. Her final film, The Fan, was released in 1949.

Beyond her performing career, Carroll largely set aside acting following the death of her sister Marguerite in the London Blitz, dedicating herself to assisting wounded servicemen and children who had been displaced or injured by the war. She served as a liaison between the United States Army and the French Resistance and worked with the Red Cross. In 1946, France awarded her the Legion of Honour for this overseas work and for her post-war efforts to foster goodwill between France and the United States. She also received the Medal of Freedom for her wartime contributions. In 1960, Carroll was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with a motion pictures star placed at 6707 Hollywood Boulevard. A commemorative monument and plaques were later unveiled in her birthplace of West Bromwich.