Peggy Shannon

Peggy Shannon (born Winona Sammon; January 10, 1907^{[1] [2]} – May 11, 1941) was an American actress. She appeared on the stage and screen of the 1920s and 1930s.

Shannon began her career as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923 before moving on to Broadway productions. She was signed to Paramount Pictures and groomed to replace Clara Bow as the newest "It girl", whom she replaced in the 1931 film, The Secret Call. Her growing dependency on alcohol eventually derailed her career. She appeared in her final film Triple Justice in 1940. In May 1941, Shannon died at the age of 34 from a heart attack, brought on by alcoholism. Her husband Albert G. Roberts shot himself three weeks after her death.

Career

Shannon was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1907

In 1935, she continued on Broadway with The Light Behind the Shadow, but was soon replaced, with a press release claiming a tooth infection, though rumors claimed it was her drinking. In 1936, she returned to Hollywood with Youth on Parole. She found it harder to conceal her drinking. Fewer movie roles were offered, and her drinking worsened. She made her last film appearance in the 1940 film Triple Justice, opposite George O'Brien. ^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

In 1926, Shannon married her first husband, actor Alan Davis. The marriage ended in July 1940. She married second husband, cameraman Albert G. Roberts, later that year.^[2][8]

Death

On May 11, 1941, Shannon's husband Albert Roberts and a fellow studio worker returned from a fishing trip to find Shannon dead in their North Hollywood apartment. She was slumped over the kitchen table, a cigarette in her mouth and an empty glass in her hand. She had been dead for approximately 12 hours. An autopsy revealed that she had died of a

She is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Three weeks after Shannon's death, her husband committed suicide by shooting himself with a .22 rifle in the same chair in which she had died. His suicide note read "I am very much in love with my wife, Peggy Shannon. In this spot she died, so in reverence to her, you will find me in the same spot."^[9]

Broadway credits

Filmography

Footnotes

Sources

• Peggy Shannon at the Internet Broadway Database
• Peggy Shannon at
  IMDb
• Peggy Shannon at AllMovie
• Peggy Shannon at the TCM Movie Database
• Peggy Shannon at Virtual History
• Peggy Shannon at Find a Grave