Peggy Pope

Florence Margaret Pope, known professionally as Peggy Pope, was born on May 15, 1929, in Montclair, New Jersey, where her father was a prominent local physician. She graduated from Smith College before embarking on a career that spanned stage, television, and film. Her professional debut came through a touring production of Mister Roberts.

Pope's Broadway career extended from 1959 to 1975 and encompassed a range of productions across genres. Her earliest Broadway appearances included Moonbirds in 1959 and both Viva Madison Avenue! and The Long Dream in 1960. She returned to Broadway in subsequent years with The Rose Tattoo in 1966, Harvey in 1970, The School for Wives in 1971, and Doctor Jazz in 1975. Away from Broadway, she appeared in the Off-Broadway staged reading of Wit & Wisdom and earned an Obie Award for Best Actress in 1968 for her performance in Muzeeka.

On film, Pope is perhaps most widely recognized for her role as Margaret Foster, an office worker whose catchphrase is "Atta girl," in the 1980 comedy 9 to 5. She went on to play Elvira in the 1984 science fiction film The Last Starfighter, appeared as Mark Kendall's mother in Once Bitten in 1985, and portrayed Sister Angela in Clark Gregg's 2008 film Choke.

Her television work included recurring appearances on Barney Miller across six episodes, as well as guest roles on Bewitched, The Trials of O'Brien, Hart to Hart, Eight Is Enough, Soap, The Golden Girls, Hope & Faith, and Law & Order. During a period when steady acting work was difficult to find, Pope and actress Renée Taylor operated a furniture business together, collecting, refinishing, and selling items they found on sidewalks. Pope was married once; the marriage ended in divorce. She died on May 27, 2020, from natural causes and was cremated at the Northern Colorado Crematory in Greeley, Colorado, with her ashes later scattered.