Margalo Gillmore

Margaret Lorraine "Margalo" Gillmore (31 May 1897 – 30 June 1986) was an English-born American actress who had a long career as a stage actress on Broadway. She also appeared in films and TV series, mostly in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Family Gillmore was the daughter of Frank Gillmore, a founder and former president of Actors' Equity, and the actress Laura MacGillivray, and the sister of actress Ruth Gillmore. Her great-aunt was the British actor-manager Sarah Thorne, and her great-uncles were the actors Thomas Thorne and George Thorne.

Career

A fourth-generation actress on her father's side, Gillmore trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her stage acting career stretched from The Scrap of Paper in 1917 through to Noël Coward's musical Sail Away on Broadway in 1961. Gillmore appeared regularly with the Theatre Guild.

Having appeared as an extra in a silent film for the Vitagraph Studios in 1913, aged 16, and in a short, The Home Girl in 1928, Gillmore made her sound-film debut in 1932 in Wayward, but did not appear on screen again until the 1950s in such films as Perfect Strangers (1950), Cause for Alarm! (1951), Woman's World (1954), High Society (1956), Gaby (1956) and Upstairs and Downstairs (1959).

During World War II, Gillmore had a role in the traveling production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street.

In 1964 she wrote her autobiography Four Flights Up, published by Houghton Mifflin.

Death On 30 June 1986, Gillmore died of cancer, aged 89, in her New York City apartment.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1928 The Home Girl short film1932 Wayward Louisa Daniels 1950 Perfect Strangers Isobel Bradford The Happy Years Maude Stover 1951 Cause for Alarm! Mrs. Edwards The Law and the Lady Cora Caighn Behave Yourself! Mother Elopement Claire Osborne 1952 Skirts Ahoy! Lt. Cmdr. Stauton 1953 Scandal at Scourie Alice Hanover 1954 Woman's World Mrs. Evelyn Andrews 1956 Gaby Mrs. Helen Carrington High Society Mrs. Seth Lord 1959 Upstairs and Downstairs Mrs. McGuffey 1966 The Trouble with Angels Sister Barbara