Madge Evans

Madge Evans, born Margherita Harrison Evans on July 1, 1909, in Manhattan, New York, was an American actress whose career spanned stage, film, radio, and television. She died on April 26, 1981, at her home in Oakland, New Jersey, from cancer, at the age of 71.

Evans began performing before she could walk, posing as an artist's model at six months old. By age two, she was appearing in print advertisements as the "Fairy Soap girl," and at four she was featured in a series of child plays produced by William A. Brady. Among her childhood acquaintances were actors Robert Warwick, Holbrook Blinn, and Henry Hull. Her early success led her mother to license her daughter's name to a hat company. Evans also posed with Anita Stewart, then 16, for an Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company calendar, and appeared as the little mountain girl in Heidi of the Alps. When she was 15, her mother took her to England and Europe.

Her Broadway career extended from 1926 to 1943 and included productions such as The Patriots, Here Come the Clowns, Philip Goes Forth, Our Betters, and The Marquise. At age eight in 1917, she appeared in the Broadway production of Peter Ibbetson alongside John Barrymore, Constance Collier, and Laura Hope Crews. At 17, she returned to the stage as the ingenue in Daisy Mayme. Additional stage work included productions of Dread, The Marquis, and The Conquering Male. Philip Goes Forth, her final stage appearance, was produced by George Kelly.

Evans made her film debut in The Sign of the Cross in 1914. As a child actress she appeared alongside Marguerite Clark in The Seven Sisters (1915) and with Robert Warwick in Alias Jimmy Valentine (1915). At 14, she starred in J. Stuart Blackton's rural melodrama On the Banks of the Wabash (1923), and the following year she co-starred with Richard Barthelmess in Classmates (1924). She signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1927 while still active on stage, and continued to take ingenue roles, frequently cast as the leading man's fiancée. Her MGM credits from the 1930s include Dinner at Eight (1933), Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Hell Below (1933), and David Copperfield (1935). In 1933 she starred opposite James Cagney in the melodrama The Mayor of Hell and played the love interest to both Al Jolson and Frank Morgan in Hallelujah, I'm a Bum. Other films from this period include Beauty for Sale (1933), Grand Canary (1934), What Every Woman Knows (1934), and Pennies From Heaven (1936). In 1960, Evans received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1752 Vine Street in recognition of her contributions to the motion picture industry.

Later in her career, Evans worked in radio and television in New York City. Her television credits include The Philco Television Playhouse (1949–1950), Studio One (1954), Matinee Theater (1955), and The Alcoa Hour (1956). She also served as a panelist on the 1950s version of Masquerade Party.

On July 25, 1939, Evans married playwright Sidney Kingsley, known for Dead End and Detective Story, in York Village, Maine. Following the marriage, she left Hollywood and relocated with Kingsley to their 250-acre estate in Oakland, New Jersey, where she remained until her death in 1981.