| Mary Maguire | |
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Mary Maguire, c. 1937 |
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| Born | Hélène Theresa Maguire 22 February 1919 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 18 May 1974 (aged 55) Long Beach, California, USA |
| Years active | 1935–1942 |
Mary Maguire (22 February 1919 – 18 May 1974) was an Australian actress who briefly became a Hollywood and British film star in the late 1930s.
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She was born Hélène Teresa Maguire [1][2] in Melbourne, Australia, to Michael "Mickey" Maguire, footballer, racehorse owner, hotel proprietor and former Australian welterweight champion [3] and Mary Jane Maguire (née Carroll).[4] Nicknamed "Peggy" by the family, she was the second of five sisters. She grew up in Melbourne and Brisbane, her father managing the famous "Bull and Mouth Hotel" in Bourke Street Melbourne,[5] and later the iconic "Bellevue Hotel" in Brisbane.[6] In Melbourne she attended the Academy of Mary Immaculate in Fitzroy. She began acting when she was cast in the film Heritage by director Charles Chauvel at the age of 16. Elsa Chauvel, in her 1973 memoirs, wrote; "This lovely child was brought to our notice by a Brisbane publicity man...fresh from a Queensland convent."[7] Changing her name to Mary, Maguire then starred in The Flying Doctor, an Australian-British co-production which was filmed in Australia by director Miles Mander, and which also starred American actor Charles Farrell.[8]
With encouragement from Miles Mander, Maguire and her family moved to Hollywood in September 1936,[9] and Mary made her U.S. debut in That Man's Here Again, followed by B movies Alcatraz Island and Sergeant Murphy with Ronald Reagan.[10] In 1938, after appearing in Mysterious Mr. Moto, she moved to Britain, where she appeared in a few British films.[11] As one of only a handful of Australian actors working internationally in film at the time, her career attracted considerable attention from Australian newspapers between 1936 and 1946.[12]
Maguire's reasons for leaving Hollywood in 1938 are unclear. There is some evidence that she had originally intended to travel to Britain in 1936.[13] On the other hand, in November 1937, a newspaper reported she had "mutinied," and been temporarily removed from Warner Brothers payroll, because she wanted "dramatic roles" rather than ingenue roles.[14]
In 1939, while in a wheelchair recovering from an injury sustained on the set of An Englishman's Home, she married Captain Robert Gordon-Canning MC, a First World War veteran, thirty years her senior.[15] Gordon-Canning was active in the British Union of Fascists and the Link[16] and amongst his fascist publications had written disparagingly of the influence and tone of Hollywood films.[17] Although he was interned in July 1940,[18] a son, Michael Robert, was born in February 1941.[19] Maguire's last film was This was Paris made in 1942 in England; ironically a story of the activities of fifth columnists in Paris before its fall.[20] By 1945 the marriage to Gordon-Canning was over, Maguire describing it as a "closed chapter" in her life. She attempted to restart her Hollywood career, but although still aged only 26, her efforts were to no avail.
Her second marriage was to Philip Henry Legarra, a US Engineer.[21]
She died at Long Beach, California, in 1974.
Elsa Chauvel claimed the Maguire sisters were known as "The Marrying Maquires", because they took "London by storm" when they arrived there, making "spectacular marriages."[7] The oldest Maguire girl, Patricia, married Peter Rudyard Aitken, the son of Lord Beaverbrook and was the mother of the current 6th Baronet Green of Wakefield.[22] The third Maguire daughter, Joan, acted on stage in London under the name Joan Shannon.[23] Carmel Maguire, married John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley and was the mother of the current Earl.[24] The youngest of the girls, "Lupe" (actually christened Mary), married British hire car "king," Godfrey Davis, also having appeared in a minor part in The Man in Grey (1943).[25]