Peggy Ryan

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Margaret O'Rene "Peggy" Ryan (August 28, 1924, Long Beach, California – October 30, 2004, Las Vegas, Nevada) was an American dancer who starred in a series of movie musicals at Universal Studios, tapping and clowning with Donald O'Connor.

Her parents were vaudevilleians, "The Merry Dancing Ryans", and Peggy joined them onstage before she was two years old. Her singing, acting, and dancing skills were noticed by George Murphy, who helped her get a role in 1937's Top of the Town. Her first pairing with O'Connor was 1942's What's Cookin'?, and they appeared in films together throughout World War II.

She married James Cross in 1945; they were divorced in 1952. She left Universal and was paired with dancer Ray McDonald for 1949's Shamrock Hill, 1950's There's a Girl in My Heart, and 1953's All Ashore. They wed in 1953 and toured together in a nightclub act before being divorced in 1957.

Her third wedding, in 1958, was to Hawaii columnist Eddie Sherman, following which she left movies for choreography and semi-retirement. Sherman adopted her two children from her previous marriages. She was brought back to the small screen to play a recurring role as secretary Jenny Sherman, in Hawaii Five-O from 1969 to 1976.

In later years she trained Las Vegas showgirls in tap dancing. Her last public performance, at her 80th birthday party, was a hilarious song-and-dance routine for her former Universal studio colleagues. She continued to teach tap until two days before her death at the age of 80 from the effects of two strokes.

She was survived by two children and five grandchildren.

Filmography

Features:

• Top of the Town (1937)
• The Women Men Marry (1937)
• The Flying Irishman (1939)
• She Married a Cop (1939)
• The Grapes of Wrath (1940) (cameo)
• Sailor's Lady (1940)
• What's Cookin'? (1942)
• Girls' Town (1942)
• Private Buckaroo (1942)
• Miss Annie Rooney (1942)
• Give Out, Sisters (1942)
• Get Hep to Love (1942)
• When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942)
• Mister Big (1943)
• Top Man (1943)
• Chip Off the Old Block (1944)
• Follow the Boys (1944)
• This Is the Life (1944)
• The Merry Monahans (1944)
• Babes on Swing Street (1944)
• Bowery to Broadway (1944)
• Here Come the Co-Eds (1945)
• Patrick the Great (1945)
• That's the Spirit (1945)
• On Stage Everybody (1945)
• Men in Her Diary (1945)
• Shamrock Hill (1949)
• There's a Girl in My Heart (1949)
• All Ashore (1953)

Short Subjects:

• The Wedding of Jack and Jill (1930)
• Billy Rose's Casa Mañana Revue (1938)
• A Night at the Troc (1939)
• Varsity Vanities (1940)
• Universal Musical Short 3655: Singin' and Swingin (1950)

Television Work

• Hawaii Five-O (cast member from 1968 - 1976)
• Pleasure Palace (1980)

External links

• Peggy Ryan at the Internet Movie Database