Peggy O'Neill Profile

Peggy O'Neill

	(Barbara Jeanne O’Neill)
8 April 24	is born in San Francisco, to A.W. and Helen M. O’Neill. Her mother’s maiden name is Risi; she is of Italian and French descent. Her father is a bank cashier.
19 February 43	she and actress Pat Parrish model two-piece polka dotted strapless playsuits that they designed
1 June 43	from Louella Parson’s column: “Her name is Peggy O’Neill. She is 19, red-haired and pretty as they come. Yes, you have guessed it. Peggy is Hollywood’s newest Cinderella. She came to Hollywood from San Francisco in search of a movie job. Fortified with experience on the radio and in community theatres, Peggy called on agent Leon Lance, who took her to see Charles R. Rogers, veteran producer. Charles took one look at her, ordered a test, signed her up, and her first movie is ‘Peggy O’Neill,’ named in her honor. Charlie had the story up his sleeve waiting for a title—and this is it.”
11 June 43	Sheilah Graham writes: “I once knew an actress called Peggy O’Neill in London. She was a redhead and, of course, Irish, and a song was written for her. Now Charles R. Rogers has found another Peggy O’Neill. She is nineteen years old and a redhead and, of course, Irish. Well, it seems that by the strangest coincidence, Mr. Rogers has had a story called ‘Peggy O’Neill’ for four years, and the only thing holding it up was the lack of a real Peggy O’Neill to play it. The picture will now be made, and it doesn’t really matter whether Peggy’s name is O’Neill or not.”
18 June 44	is on a Victory Bond tour of Texas along with Wild Bill Elliott, Johnny Mack Brown, Gale Storm, Adele Mara, Veeda Patrick, Cindy Garner, Raymond Walburn, Jeri Wayne, Guinn Williams, Huntz Hall, Jean Brooks, Chill Wills, Jim Wakely, and Leroy “Lasses” White
22 June 44	she and her bond-selling troupe move on to Galveston, where they host the Victory Polka
16 January 45	she, starlet Pat Parrish, and their prospective grooms motor to Las Vegas to get hitched. The car breaks down about 50 miles short of their destination. They thumb a ride with a rancher and make it to the altar. Parrish is a Columbia starlet, daughter of fashion director Enid Parrish. O’Neill weds Ensign Lloyd L. Miner, and Parrish, Lieutenant William Casey of the Marine Corps. The gals met the two at the Hollywood Officers’ Club.
45	lives with her mother Helen at 410 North Rossmore Avenue
13 April 45	is found dead in the apartment of screenwriter Albert Mannheimer Jr., 31, at 1014/1015 N. Dohney Drive. Sheriff Lieutenant A. L. Hutchinson reports she died from an overdose of sleeping tablets following a lover’s quarrel. She had been going with Mannheimer on and off for the past two years. According to a statement made by Mannheimer, a dispute resulted when she arrived late for a dinner date at his apartment accompanied by actor Eddie Hall. Hall tried to explain, but Mannheimer left alone for the theater. When he returned shortly after midnight, he found the dinner table set and her fully clothed body lying on the living room floor / on the bed, with an empty glass clutched in her fingers.
	her agent Al Orsatti said she was to have signed a long-term contract with Paramount on the day she was found
	is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles, main mausoleum, block 120, crypt 1-A

Sources: The Bessemer Herald, The Brainerd Daily Dispatch, Galveston Daily News, Kingsport News, The Port Arthur News, San Antonio Light, Waterloo Daily Courier, The San Francisco Public Library, www.Ancestry.com, www.Findagrave.com
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Links: Filmography