Michael St. Angel

Michael St. Angel (1916–1984) was an American actor who worked across Broadway, film, and television over the course of several decades. Born in Rockford, Illinois, to Jasper and Giacomina St. Angel, he was the son of a prominent real estate businessman and community leader. After completing high school, he enrolled at Beloit College in Wisconsin, where he studied drama, before transferring to St. Ambrose College in Iowa, where he earned his degree and subsequently taught drama for a period of years.

St. Angel eventually left his teaching position and returned to Wisconsin, joining the Belfry Players and touring the country in stock productions. That path led him to New York, where in July 1942 he made his Broadway debut in The Cat Screams, a drama in which he played a small role as a soldier. The production closed after only four days. Two months later he was cast in the comedy Janie, a considerably more successful venture that ran for well over a year.

His stage work attracted the attention of a Warner Bros. talent scout, who brought him west to audition for the role of George Gershwin in the 1945 biopic Rhapsody in Blue. That part ultimately went to Robert Alda, but before St. Angel could return to New York, a meeting with RKO Pictures resulted in a studio contract. He began his film career in minor roles, starting with Gangway for Tomorrow in 1943, before gaining more visibility in Bride by Mistake and Marine Raiders, both in 1944. Those credits led to a romantic co-starring role opposite Elaine Riley in the Leon Errol comedy What a Blonde in 1945, and from there he was cast as the second lead in the thriller The Brighton Strangler, also in 1945, which starred John Loder as an actor dangerously consumed by the murderous stage role he performs.

St. Angel married Fox singer and dancer Marjorie Holliday in 1945. The couple had a son, Jasper Michael, born in 1951, after which Marjorie stepped away from her own career. St. Angel's film momentum, however, had already begun to fade. He was reduced to smaller parts in pictures including First Yank Into Tokyo, The Madonna's Secret, and The Truth About Murder. Over his objections, RKO rebranded him under the name Steven Flagg in an effort to revive his profile, though the change produced little result. Under that name he appeared in several short films alongside his former co-star Leon Errol. Producer Howard Hughes kept St. Angel under contract despite his diminished standing, and he continued to appear in films such as Easy Living, Flying Leathernecks, The Pace That Thrills, and The French Line before being dropped by the studio.

Reverting to his real name, St. Angel shifted his focus increasingly toward television, appearing in episodes of The Gale Storm Show, The Untouchables, The Virginian, Love American Style, and The Magician, among others. A potentially significant opportunity arose in 1957 when he was considered to star as TV detective Mike Hammer, but the role did not come to fruition. To supplement his income during leaner periods, he worked for Howard Hughes at TWA and served as a personal assistant to columnist Walter Winchell. He also continued to take occasional film roles, appearing in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane in 1962, 4 for Texas in 1963, Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round in 1966, and The Love Machine in 1971.

Following the sudden death of his wife Marjorie in 1969 at age 48 from a cerebral hemorrhage, St. Angel moved into the restaurant business, eventually owning and managing an establishment called Michael's Los Feliz. He died in 1984 at age 67 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, survived by his son.