Margaret Lindsay

Margaret Lindsay, born Margaret Kies on September 19, 1910, in Dubuque, Iowa, was an American actress whose career spanned stage, film, and television. The eldest of six children, she grew up in Dubuque, where her father worked as a pharmacist until his death in 1930. She graduated from Visitation Academy in Dubuque that same year and subsequently pursued formal training at National Park Seminary in Washington, D.C., and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where Robert Cummings was among her classmates.

Unable to find work in American theater under her given name, Lindsay adopted a British persona at Cummings's suggestion, following the same strategy her classmate had used to secure roles. As "Margaret Lindsay," she launched her stage career in two successful productions, Death Takes a Holiday and By Candlelight, before attracting the attention of Universal Studios, which signed her for their 1932 production of The Old Dark House. Though she ultimately did not appear in that film after arriving in Hollywood, she secured roles in several pre-Code productions, including Christopher Strong and Baby Face, which starred Barbara Stanwyck. Her casting as Edith Harris, a doomed English bride, in Fox Film Corporation's award-winning Cavalcade led to a five-year contract with Warner Bros.

During her tenure at Warner Bros., Lindsay appeared in both major productions and smaller features. She co-starred opposite James Cagney in G Men (1935) and opposite Pat O'Brien in Garden of the Moon (1938). She appeared alongside Bette Davis in four Warner Bros. films: Fog Over Frisco (1934), in which she played Davis's sister; Dangerous (1935), for which Davis won her first Academy Award for Best Actress; Bordertown, with Paul Muni; and Jezebel (1938), in which she played Davis's rival for Henry Fonda's affections. Following her Warner Bros. contract, she reunited with Cummings at Universal for The Under-Pup (1939), in which she took a supporting role.

Lindsay's 1940s film work included what critics have identified as her most distinguished screen performance: her portrayal of Hepzibah Pyncheon in Universal's 1940 adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables. Film historians Michael Brunas, John Brunas, and Tom Weaver described her contribution to that film as potentially the best and most striking performance in the picture. She also appeared in Columbia Pictures's first Crime Doctor series entry and played Nikki Porter in Columbia's Ellery Queen series from 1940 to 1942, before taking a supporting role in The Spoilers in 1942.

After Universal released her from her contract, Lindsay returned to the stage. In 1943 she appeared on Broadway in the comedy Another Love Story, which ran for approximately three months. Following that engagement, she returned to Hollywood, where her film work shifted largely to productions at lower-budget studios including Monogram Pictures and PRC. She later secured roles in larger productions, appearing in MGM's Cass Timberlane (1947) alongside Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner, and in Scarlet Street (1945). She also returned to the stage, co-starring with Franchot Tone in The Second Man.

Lindsay made her television debut in 1950 in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest, a role that drew on the British accent she had cultivated early in her career. She appeared in only four films during the 1950s and two during the 1960s, with her final feature film being Tammy and the Doctor in 1963.

In her personal life, Lindsay never married. She lived with her sister Helen early in her career and later with her youngest sister Mickie. Her sister Jane Kies also pursued an acting career under the stage name Jane Gilbert. According to biographer and historian William J. Mann, Lindsay was the life partner of actress Mary McCarty. Lindsay died of emphysema on May 9, 1981, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 70 and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.