Margaret Callahan was a convent-educated beauty of Irish ancestry, born on August 12, 1910, and passed away on November 15, 1981. Unlike the stage actress of the same name born in 1890, Margaret was a Hollywood ingénue who briefly found herself in the spotlight in the 1930s.
Margaret's early career began on stage, first with the Stuart Walker stock company in Cincinnati and later in summer stock on Long Island. She eventually made her Broadway debut in 1934 and was nearly top-billed in a few short-lived plays. Her performances caught the attention of talent scouts, leading her to be signed by RKO in 1935.
Margaret's film career was marked by a sextet of movies, with the most notable being the detective mystery Muss 'em Up (1936),a cleverly scripted film noir directed by Charles Vidor. In this film, she co-starred opposite Preston Foster as the woman who sends the telegram that sets events in motion.
Margaret's other notable films include Hot Tip (1935),His Family Tree (1935),and Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935),as well as Special Investigator (1936),a crime drama based on a story by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner.
After her film career ended, Margaret returned to the stage, starring in Lillian Hellman's play Cuckoos of the Hearth at the Morosco Theatre in 1941. She appeared in another play, Ramshackle Inn, in 1944, but ultimately faded from the scene.
