Peggy Converse

Peggy Converse, born Velma Randall on April 3, 1905, in Oregon City, Oregon, was an American actress whose work in stage, film, and television extended across seven decades. She died on March 2, 2001.

Converse began her acting career at sixteen in Los Angeles, taking on ingénue roles through the 1920s and 1930s. She graduated from Stanford University in 1927. Her stage work included Broadway productions of Infernal Machine and The Comedy of Good and Evil before her verified Broadway credits of Miss Quis in 1937, in which she played Crickett, and Wuthering Heights in 1939, in which she portrayed Isabel Linton. Beyond Broadway, she toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada, accumulating approximately 100 roles across more than 1,000 theaters, frequently appearing alongside her second husband, actor Don Porter.

Her film career began in 1942 with an uncredited role as a receptionist in My Sister Eileen. Subsequent film appearances included The Girl of the Limberlost in 1945 as Jessie Reed, Railroaded! in 1947 as Marie Weston, Miss Sadie Thompson in 1953 as Mrs. Margaret Davidson, and Drum Beat in 1954 as Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant. Her final film credit was Mrs. Barrett in The Accidental Tourist in 1988.

Television work occupied a significant portion of her later career, with guest appearances from the 1950s through the 1980s. These included a 1956 episode of You Are There in which she played Clara Barton, a 1957 episode of Perry Mason as Myrtle Northrup, a 1960 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Mrs. Lyons, and the unaired pilot episode of Mister Ed in 1961 as Mrs. Bagby. She also appeared in recurring roles, including seven episodes of Days of Our Lives in 1981 as Mother Superior.

Her first husband was Edmund Converse, founder of Bonanza Air Lines. Following their divorce, she married Don Porter, and that marriage lasted 53 years until his death in 1997. The couple had two children.