Mary Maguire

Mary Maguire

Mary Maguire, c. 1937
Born Hélène Teresa Maguire
(1919-02-22)22 February 1919
Melbourne, Australia
Died 18 May 1974(1974-05-18) (aged 55)
Long Beach, California, U.S.
Years active 1935–1942
Spouse(s) Robert Gordon-Canning (1940-1944) (divorced) (1 child)
Philip Henry Legarra (1945-1971) (his death)
Children Michael (1941-1942)

Mary Maguire (22 February 1919 – 18 May 1974) was an Australian-born actress who briefly became a Hollywood and British film star in the late 1930s.

Childhood and career in Australia

She was born Hélène Teresa Maguire [1][2] in Melbourne, Australia, to Michael "Mickey" Maguire, footballer, racehorse owner, hotel proprietor, and former welterweight boxer[3][4] and Mary Jane Maguire (née Carroll).[5] 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,[6] and later the iconic Bellevue Hotel in Brisbane.[7] 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."[8] Changing her name to Mary, Maguire then starred in The Flying Doctor, an Australian-British co-production that was filmed in Australia by director Miles Mander and also starred American actor Charles Farrell.[9]

Hollywood 1936–1938

With encouragement from Miles Mander, Maguire and her family moved to Hollywood in September 1936.[10] Mander gave her an introduction to fellow Australian expat John Farrow, who arranged for an interview with a casting director that led to a contract with Warner Bros.[11]

Mary made her U.S. debut in That Man's Here Again, followed by B movies Alcatraz Island and Sergeant Murphy with Ronald Reagan.[12] In 1938, after appearing in Mysterious Mr. Moto, she moved to Britain, where she appeared in a few British films.[13] 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.[14]

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.[15] 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.[16]

Marriage to Robert Gordon-Canning and end of career

Actress Mary Maguire being welcomed home at Brisbane, 1936

In mid 1939, she announced her engagement to Robert Gordon-Canning MC, a First World War veteran thirty years her senior. Gordon-Canning had been active in far-right British politics, including the British Union of Fascists and The Link.[17] When their engagement was announced, Maguire felt the need to publicly disassociate herself from Gordon-Canning's political views and anti-Semitism. In July 1939, she told an Australian Women's Weekly journalist: "I have no Fascist sympathies... and do not intend to take part in my fiance's political life... I was given my big chance in Hollywood where there are many Jews. It would be both ungrateful and unkind of me to ally myself because of marriage with the Fascist Party."[18] They married in August 1939, attracting great publicity, partly because she was carried to the wedding in an invalid chair.[19] Ironically, amongst his previous fascist publications, Gordon-Canning had written disparagingly of the influence and tone of Hollywood films.[20] Although he was interned in July 1940,[21] a son, Michael Robert, was born in February 1941.[22] Maguire's last film was This was Paris, made in 1942 in England, a story of the activities of fifth columnists in Paris before its fall.[23] 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 U.S. engineer.[24]

She died at Long Beach, California, in 1974.

The marrying Maguires

Mary Maguire featured prominently in Australian advertising for The Outsider

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."[8] 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.[25] The third Maguire daughter, Joan, acted on stage in London under the name Joan Shannon.[26] Carmel Maguire, married John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley and was the mother of the current Earl.[27] 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).[28]

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ A. W. Simpson (1992) In the Highest Degree Odious: Detention without Trial in Wartime Britain, p.215. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-825949-2
  2. ↑ rootsweb.ancestry.com
  3. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June 1950
  4. ↑ Boxing Record Accessed 12/06/2013
  5. ↑ National Library of Australia scrapbook compiled about Mary Maguire (senior)
  6. ↑ The Argus, Melbourne, 19 November 1924
  7. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1941
  8. 1 2 Elsa Chauvel (1973) My Life with Charles Chauvel. p. 60 The Shakespeare Head Press, Sydney. ISBN 0-85558-062-3. The convent was, in fact, Loretto Convent, Brisbane—the school some of the Maguire girls attended after relocating from Melbourne.
  9. ↑ Australians in Hollywood: Mary Maguire, National Portrait Gallery (Australia).
  10. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 17 September 1936
  11. ↑ "Australian Conquests In Hollywood.". The Advertiser (Adelaide: National Library of Australia). 28 November 1936. p. 13. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  12. ↑ Vaughn, Stephen (1994). Ronald Reagan in Hollywood: Movies and Politics. UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44080-7.
  13. ↑ The Argus, Melbourne, 18 May 1938
  14. ↑ See digitized Australian newspaper collections online at http://trove.nla.gov.au
  15. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 1936
  16. ↑ The Argus, Melbourne, 5 November 1937
  17. ↑ See further details at British National Security Archives
  18. ↑ "MARY MAGUIRE TO MARRY ENGLISH FASCIST CAPTAIN". The Australian Women's Weekly. 29 July 1939. p. 28. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  19. ↑ Herald and Weekly Times photo of the marriage
  20. ↑ Thomas Linehan, Brunel University, "A Dangerous Piece of Celluloid? British Fascists and the Hollywood Movie See Gordon-Canning's writings, including Mind Britain's Business and The Holy Land, Arab or Jew? (1938)
  21. ↑ The Argus, Melbourne, Friday 12 July 1940
  22. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1941 However, the son died in early 1942 and was interned at a church in the Gordon-Cannings' ancestral seat of Hartpury. See
  23. ↑ Turner Classic Movies entry
  24. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 12 March 1946
  25. ↑ Janet Aitken Kidd (1987 )The Beaverbrook Girl. Collins, London. ISBN 0-00-217602-5
  26. ↑ The Evening Post, New Zealand, 11 July 1940, P.18
  27. ↑ Obituary of 4th Earl of Kimberley
  28. ↑ The Argus, Melbourne, 11 November 1937, reports an effort by Carmen and Lupe to break into pictures
  29. ↑ The Queenslander 21 June 1934

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