Marjorie Lord

Marjorie Lord (née Wollenberg; July 26, 1918 – November 28, 2015) was an American actress whose career spanned stage, film, and television across more than three decades. Born in San Francisco, California, to Lillian Rosalie (née Edgar) and George Charles Wollenberg, a cosmetics executive, Lord trained as a ballet dancer during her early childhood. Her paternal grandparents were German, as were two of her maternal great-grandparents. When Lord was 15, her family relocated to New York City.

Lord made her Broadway debut in 1935 at the age of 16, appearing in The Old Maid alongside Judith Anderson. She returned to Broadway in Signature in 1945, followed by Little Brown Jug in 1946, Anniversary Waltz, and The Girl in the Freudian Slip in 1967. Despite achieving her greatest public recognition through television, Lord stated in 1963 that the stage was her primary vocation and first love, reflecting the training that had shaped her early career. In the 1970s, she extended her stage work into dinner theater, spending 34 weeks in such productions during 1973 alone.

Lord was signed by RKO Radio Pictures in 1935, and while performing in Springtime for Henry with Edward Everett Horton, she was approached by director Henry Koster, who signed her to a contract with Universal Studios. At Universal she appeared in six feature films and the serial The Adventures of Smilin' Jack. Her film work included several wartime productions, among them the 1943 mystery Sherlock Holmes in Washington, starring Basil Rathbone in the title role. She also appeared in the Western films Masked Raiders, Mexican Manhunt, and Down Laredo Way. In 1966, she played Mrs. Martha Meade, the wife of Bob Hope's character, in the screwball comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

Lord's television career began in the early 1950s with appearances on series including The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Kit Carson. Her most prominent television role came in 1956, when Danny Thomas noticed her performance in Anniversary Waltz and invited her to join Make Room for Daddy as a replacement for Jean Hagen, who had played Thomas's wife since the series began but departed at the end of her contract. Lord took on the role of Kathy "Clancy" O'Hara Williams and remained with the show, retitled The Danny Thomas Show, until its cancellation in 1964. In 1970, she and Thomas reunited with several original cast members for Make Room for Granddaddy, which ran for one season. Lord has a star in the television section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6317 Hollywood Boulevard, dedicated on February 8, 1960.

Lord was married three times. Her first marriage, to actor John Archer on December 30, 1941, lasted until their divorce in 1955 and produced two children, including actress Anne Archer. Her second husband was producer Randolph Hale, whom she married in 1958 and who died in 1974. In 1976 she married Harry Volk, former CEO of Union Bank and a Los Angeles philanthropist; he died in 2000. Lord is the grandmother of Tommy Davis, son of her daughter Anne. She published a memoir titled A Dance and a Hug in 2004. In 2008, at past the age of 90, she participated in a "Salute to Television Moms" panel discussion organized by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Lord died on November 28, 2015, at her home in Beverly Hills, California, of natural causes, at the age of 97. She was cremated, and her ashes were given to her son, Gregg Archer.