Peggy O'Day

Peggy O'Day, born Genevieve Berte on June 16, 1900, in Ohio, was an American actress, stuntwoman, film editor, and screenwriter whose career spanned the 1920s and 1930s. She also appeared on Broadway between 1923 and 1931, with credits including the musical You Said It and the revue Topics of 1923. She is sometimes confused with silent-era actress Peggy O'Dare, and certain film credits list her under her birth name.

O'Day was the only child of Harry Berte, a professional baseball player, and Maude Hopkins. The family lived in Kentucky and Missouri, and O'Day later described her upbringing as one of financial hardship. As an adult, she directed charitable donations toward children's organizations. In her teenage years she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue acting, where she found early employment as a Christie bathing beauty. In 1921 she declined an invitation to join the Orpheum circuit as a vaudeville performer. Two years later, in 1923, she adopted the stage name Peggy O'Day, a decision she made strategically to benefit her career.

Though she began in comedies, O'Day built a distinct reputation in Western films as a skilled horsewoman and one of the early pioneering stuntwomen of the silent era. To prepare for on-screen fight sequences, she trained with boxer Kid McCoy. Her acting filmography includes titles such as The Galloping Devil (1920), the serials and shorts of the early 1920s including Gold Grabbers and Thundering Hoofs (both 1922), and later features such as Riders of Mystery and Rose of the Desert (both 1925). She also contributed as a writer on The Four from Nowhere and Whistling Jim, both released in 1925. Her final acting credits include The Clean-Up Man and His Last Bullet, both from 1928.

An on-set accident ultimately ended her performing career and led O'Day into film editing. During the early 1930s she held responsibility for editing all of MGM's foreign-language releases and rose to an executive position within the studio's international department. Her editing credits include the Spanish-language productions El Presidio and Olimpia (both 1930) and En Cada Puerto un Amor, Su Ultima Noche, and Cheri-Bibi (all 1931).

In 1934, O'Day married Earl Reis, a motion picture sound engineer. Reis died in 1939 from complications stemming from injuries he had suffered while serving as an aviator in World War I. The couple had no children. O'Day retired in 1960 and died on November 25, 1964.