Margot Grahame

Margot Grahame, born Margaret Clark on 20 February 1911, was an English actress whose career spanned stage and screen across three decades. She died in London on 1 January 1982 from chronic bronchitis at the age of 70.

Grahame spent her early childhood in South Africa, where her family relocated when she was three years old, and she received her education there. She launched her stage career in Pretoria alongside Dennis Neilson-Terry, beginning just weeks after leaving school at fourteen. Her London stage debut came in 1927, when she served as understudy to Mary Glynne in The Terror. Her screen career began with the 1930 film Rookery Nook, and within three years she had accumulated 42 major roles in British productions, a pace that drew the attention of Hollywood producers.

Her move to America resulted in a long-term contract with RKO. She gained significant recognition for her performance as the prostitute girlfriend of Gypo Nolan in John Ford's The Informer (1935), and the same year played Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers (1935). After The Buccaneer (1938), she was absent from film for nearly a decade before returning in The Fabulous Joe (1947), produced by Bebe Daniels, in which she was reunited with Walter Abel, her leading man from The Three Musketeers. In that film she played Emily Terkle opposite Fredric March. She subsequently appeared in The Romantic Age in 1949.

Her later film work included I'll Get You for This (1951) with George Raft and Coleen Gray, The Crimson Pirate (1952) with Burt Lancaster, The Beggar's Opera (1953), Orders Are Orders (1954), and Saint Joan (1957), which starred Jean Seberg in the title role. Her final screen appearance came in 1958 in a episode of The New Adventures of Charlie Chan titled "The Sweater."

Grahame also brought her talents to the Broadway stage in 1942, appearing in two dramas: Heart of a City and The Strings, My Lord, Are False.

In her personal life, Grahame separated from British actor Francis Lister in 1935 and subsequently moved to a home in the Hollywood Hills. She married Canadian millionaire Allen McMartin in 1938; they divorced in 1946. Beginning in 1948, she maintained a relationship with British literary agent A. D. Peters that lasted until his death in 1973. She had no survivors at the time of her death and was cremated.