Patricia Peardon

Patricia Peardon (1923 or 1924 – April 22, 1993) was an American actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1935 to 1955, and who later became a sculptor. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, she was the daughter of U.S. Navy Commander R. C. Peardon, a baritone soloist who performed in locally produced operas and operettas, and a mother who worked as a business executive and had hoped her daughter would pursue teaching. Peardon grew up in Allendale, Midland Park, and later Ridgewood, New Jersey, and began acting at the age of eight. She attended Oakley Hall, a private girls' school in Allendale.

Before reaching Broadway, Peardon built experience in radio and on tour. As a child she appeared on The March of Time, taking on roles that included Princess Elizabeth, Snow White, and Stalin's daughter, as well as on Cavalcade of America. At twelve she toured with Katharine Hepburn in a Theatre Guild production of Jane Eyre, and she later credited Hepburn's encouragement as a meaningful influence on her decision to continue as an actress.

Peardon made her Broadway debut at seventeen when she originated the title role of Judy Graves in Junior Miss in 1941, having sought the part at sixteen by visiting director Moss Hart in high heels, jewelry, and styled hair at a friend's urging. She performed the role for the show's complete Broadway run and a subsequent extended tour, including an overseas tour on which Junior Miss became the first play to travel through Europe. The role brought her significant attention, including a cover appearance on the December 15, 1941, issue of Life magazine alongside a photographic re-enactment of her audition with Hart. Reviews praised her performance, with Time magazine noting she "tears into the role of Judy with engaging gusto," Jay Carmody of the Evening Star calling her the play's most singular blessing, and critic Richard Watts describing her as "just gawky enough, just blooming enough, and just pretty enough" for the part.

Her other Broadway credits include The Hook-up and The Desperate Hours (1955), in which she played Cindy Hillard. That casting came about unexpectedly: Peardon had attended an audition for a television program directed by Robert Montgomery, who was simultaneously directing The Desperate Hours and asked her to audition for the play instead. Beyond Broadway, Peardon toured with Arnold Moss's Shakespeare Festival Players in productions of King Lear, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night, and performed at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut in 1964. She also toured in a summer production of Heaven Can Wait and appeared in regional theater productions including Uncle Vanya, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Dark of the Moon, The Music Master, and The Seven Year Itch.

Peardon's work extended into radio and television. On radio she was heard on The Aldrich Family, Let's Pretend, and Orphans of Divorce, and on television she acted on Johnny Jupiter and The Philco Television Playhouse. She also developed a body of literary recital work, most notably The Amazing Miss Alcott, a one-woman show commissioned by the Library of Congress in 1968 to mark the hundredth anniversary of Little Women. Peardon assembled the piece from Louisa May Alcott's letters and journals, shaping a narrative around Alcott's efforts to support her family. She presented the program at colleges, club meetings, and on television. Two additional recital programs followed: The Queen's Confession, adapted from a Victoria Holt novel about Marie Antoinette, and An Acquaintance of Angels.

During World War II, Peardon engaged in public service work connected to the theater community. She chaired the junior committee for two benefit performances of Gratefully Yours in 1942, a production whose cast was drawn from children of British actors and actresses who had come to the United States because of the war, with proceeds divided between the American Theatre Wing War Service and the British and American Ambulance Corps. She also chaired the Junior Committee for Naval Relief, overseeing fifty assistants in ticket sales and organizing an all-star show at Madison Square Garden on March 10, 1942.

After painting throughout much of her life, Peardon began sculpting in 1965, working in wax before casting her figures in bronze. Her subjects were typically small human figures set in outdoor scenes. She began exhibiting and selling her bronze sculptures in 1966, and her work was displayed in the windows of Tiffany & Co. on three occasions. Additional exhibitions were held at Avery Fisher Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Tufts University, and Burgos Galleries. At a 1968 exhibition at the Chelsea National Bank Gallery, her works were priced between $1,100 and $10,500.

Peardon married writer Murray Kalischer on April 21, 1942, in New York City. She was subsequently married to writer Peter Brandt Harmon and to producer Richard Horner, with each marriage ending in divorce. She had two daughters. Peardon died of pneumonia on April 22, 1993, at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan at the age of sixty-nine.