Peggy Cass

Mary Margaret "Peggy" Cass (May 21, 1924 – March 8, 1999) was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.

As an actress, Cass is best known for originating the role of Agnes Gooch in the 1956 stage and 1958 film versions of Auntie Mame, for which she won a Tony Award and a Theatre World Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, and two Laurel Awards. As a television personality, Cass is best known as one of the resident panelists on To Tell the Truth from 1962 to 1968 when hosted by Bud Collyer, 1969 to 1978 when hosted by Garry Moore and his successors Bill Cullen and Joe Garagiola, and 1990 when hosted by Gordon Elliott.

Early life Peggy Cass received acting training at HB Studio in New York City and eventually landed the lead role of Billie Dawn in a traveling production of Born Yesterday. She played several characters throughout the performance, including: the mother in "The Wolf at the Door", the narrator of "The Little Girl and the Wolf", a nameless American tourist (who insisted Macbeth was a murder mystery), Miss Alma Winege in "File and Forget" (who wanted to ship to Mr. Thurber 36 copies of Grandma Was a Nudist, which he did not order), Mrs. Preble in "Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife", Lou in "Take Her Up Tenderly" (who was helping to make old poetry more cheerful), and Walter Mitty's wife.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cass succeeded other actresses in Don't Drink the Water (as Marion Hollander) and in Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, and played Mollie Malloy in two revival runs of The Front Page. She also appeared in the 1969 film comedy If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. In the 1980s, she returned to the stage in 42nd Street and in the 1985 run of The Octette Bridge Club.

Television and stage

One of Cass's earliest television roles was as Elinore Hathaway in The Hathaways, a 26-episode situation comedy that aired on ABC from October 6, 1961, to March 30, 1962. She starred with Jack Weston as suburban Los Angeles "parents" to a trio of performing chimpanzees. Weston portrayed Walter Hathaway, a real estate agent, and Cass was his zany wife, "mother" and booking agent for the Marquis Chimps, named Candy, Charlie and Enoch.

Cass was the announcer on Jack Paar's late night talk show, Jack Paar Tonite that aired in 1973 on ABC. In addition to her work with Paar, Cass's notable television work includes appearances on many game shows, on shows based mainly in New York City. She was a regular panelist on To Tell the Truth from 1960 through its 1990 revival, appearing in most episodes in the 1960s and 1970s. She was also a panelist on the pilot of the 1960s version of Match Game.

On To Tell the Truth and other series, she often displayed near-encyclopedic knowledge of various topics and would occasionally question the logic of some of the "facts" presented on the program. Cass appeared on What's My Line? in 1963, and made several appearances on the $10,000 & $20,000 Pyramid hosted by Dick Clark from 1973 to 1980, as well as the nighttime version, which was titled The $25,000 Pyramid (1974–1979), hosted by her friend Bill Cullen. All three of these versions were taped in New York City. She also appeared in the late 1970s on Shoot for the Stars hosted by Geoff Edwards, which was another game show that partnered contestants with celebrities, also filmed in New York City.

In 1983, she appeared in the New Amsterdam Theatre Company's concert staging of Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash's One Touch of Venus as Mrs. Kramer, with Susan Lucci as her daughter, as well as Lee Roy Reams, Ron Raines, and Paige O'Hara as the titular Venus. In the spring of 1991, she participated in a concert staging of Cole Porter's Fifty Million Frenchmen at New York City's French Institute Alliance Française as Mrs. Gladys Carroll, singing Porter's "The Queen of Terre Haute".

In 1987, Cass was featured in the early Fox sitcom Women in Prison. Aside from sitcoms, she played the role of H. Sweeney on the NBC afternoon soap opera, The Doctors from 1978 to 1979.

Cass appeared on the pilot episode of Major Dad on September 17, 1989. She portrayed Esther Nettleton, a civilian secretary working on the Marine base for Maj. John "Mac" MacGillis.

Personal life and death On March 8, 1999, Cass died of heart failure in New York City at age 74 at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Filmography

Stage

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Results Ref. 1958 Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress Auntie Mame 1958 Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture 1958 Laurel Awards Top Female Supporting Performance Top Female New Personality 1973 Photoplay Awards Variety Star 1974 1975 1957 Theatre World Awards Auntie Mame 1957 Tony Awards Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Musical