- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMarjorie F. Wollenberg
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- Poised and lovely Marjorie Lord started her long and varied career on the Broadway stage and in "B" films as a sweet-natured ingénue. Born Marjorie F. Wollenberg, of German and Czech heritage, on July 26, 1918 in San Francisco, California, her family transported themselves to New York City when she was 15. Here she enrolled in both acting and ballet at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Chaliff School of Dance, respectively.
Marjorie's first job (billed as Marjorie Lord) was as a 17-year-old replacement on Broadway in "The Old Maid" starring Judith Anderson in 1935. Film parts from recently-signed RKO Studio started coming her way in 1937 with the Harry Carey western Border Cafe (1937); the murder mystery Forty Naughty Girls (1937); the Wheeler & Woolsey musical comedy High Flyers (1937); and a top role in the family drama The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939).
She met actor John Archer after they appeared together in the stage production of "The Male Animal" and married at the end of 1941, they settled in Hollywood after playing Los Angeles in a stage tour of "Springtime for Henry" with Edward Everett Horton in 1942. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1953. Son Gregg avoided show business and became an airline pilot while daughter Anne Archer followed in her parents' footsteps as an actress.
Marjorie earned a Universal contract in the process and throughout the 1940s and 1950s and would alternate between theater and film assignments. She returned to Broadway with the plays "Signature" in 1945 and "Little Brown Jug" a year later, returning a decade later as a replacement in the popular Moss Hart comedy "Anniversary Waltz" in the mid-1950s. Most of Marjorie's films were inconsequential and set her up as a pretty diversion -- Escape from Hong Kong (1942), Moonlight in Havana (1942) and The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1943). Some of her better films of that period included a loan-out, Johnny Come Lately (1943), with James Cagney, and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) starring the irrepressible sleuthing team of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
Freelancing from the late 1940s on, Marjorie was the co-star or second lead in such films as the jazzy musical drama New Orleans (1947) for Hal Roach Studios; the Universal crimers The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948) and The Argyle Secrets (1948) as a femme fatale; the Columbia action adventure Air Hostess (1949); the Tim Holt RKO western Masked Raiders (1949) in an interesting shady role; Monogram's Bomba the Jungle Boy offering The Lost Volcano (1950); the Columbia action drama Chain Gang (1950); and the amusing crime comedy Stop That Cab (1951).
Moving more into the new 1950s medium of TV, Marjorie had guest parts on such shows as "Racket Squad," "The Adventures of Kit Carson," "China Smith," "Ramar of the Jungle," "Hopalong Cassidy," "The Loretta Young Show" and "Wagon Train," along with the anthology series "Four Star Playhouse," "Schlitz Playhouse," "Fireside Theatre," and "'Cavalcade of America." Marjorie greatest exposure, however, came in 1957 when she was cast as the second wife of widower/entertainer Danny Thomas in the long-established comedy hit The Danny Thomas Show (1953). She lucked into the role when Danny's "first wife" (played by actress Jean Hagen, best known for her classic role as screechy "Lina Lamont" in Singin' in the Rain (1952)) asked to leave the series and the writer had her character "die." Marjorie proved an able sparring partner for the comedian for seven more seasons, but was unsparingly typecast as the wholesome wife thereafter.
Following this Marjorie appeared in a number of dinner theater productions for work, but would indelibly remain Kathy ("Clancy") Williams in the public eye and appeared very sparsely on TV ("Love, American Style") and film (fifth billed as the wife of Bob Hope in the comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)). As a result, she graciously returned to Danny Thomas and her famous TV wife role in the sequel series Make Room for Granddaddy (1970).
Marjorie gently phased her career out for the most part after her third marriage in 1977, but could be seen from time to time in such programs as "Fantasy Island" and "The Love Boat." In 1987, she returned for a short-lived run on the domestic sitcom Sweet Surrender (1987) starring Dana Delany and Mark Blum, as the latter's mother. Her last camera appearance was a featured part in the "grumpy old men"-styled TV movie Side by Side (1988) starring Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and her TV husband Danny Thomas.
Made a widow by her second and third husbands, Marjorie published her memoir, "A Dance and a Hug," in 2005. She died on November 28, 2015, age 97, in Beverly Hills, California, of natural causes.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpousesHarry J Volk(August 14, 1976 - May 12, 2000) (his death)Randolph Hale(May 26, 1958 - August 9, 1974) (his death)John Archer(December 30, 1941 - October 16, 1953) (divorced, 2 children)
- Children
- RelativesTommy Davis(Grandchild)Jeffrey Tucker Jastrow(Grandchild)
- A magazine pin-up girl during WWII, she actively worked on war bond tours.
- Ex-husband John Archer's name was really Ralph Bowman. Shortly after their first child was born, he legally changed it to John Archer. Therefore, their son was born Gregg Bowman and their daughter was born Anne Archer.
- Discovered as a teen by husband-and-wife actors Clyde Fillmore and Lea Penman while Marjorie was a student at a school where they were teaching acting.
- B-movie actress best known as the second wife of Danny Thomas on the popular comedy The Danny Thomas Show (1953).
- In July 2006, she was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina along with Russ Tamblyn, Coleen Gray, Ben Murphy, Roger Davis, Mark Goddard, Ronnie Schell, Steve Kanaly, Tom Reese and Cheryl Rogers.
- Acting helped me overcome the terrible shyness I had when I was young. It also kept me from confronting the real me, a person I suspected was not very likable. But I know her now and she's quite a nice lady. I think I just outgrew the need for that sort of approval.
- I liked Masked Raiders (1949), but some of the others I would like to bury! I did them to make money. They were not bad, and I was the heavy in one - Rex Allen's Down Laredo Way (1953). Dona Drake was great. I was yuck! I did scenes with Rex Allen - period. It was Dona Drake who pursued our friendship. I was separated from John Archer, and Dona kept trying to fix me up with somebody, one of the guys who was an alcoholic. I had been through that with John, so it was only two dates with that guy.
- Andy Devine - I adored him! I ran into him many times after Escape from Hong Kong (1942) and Timber! (1942); but Leo Carrillo was a big flirt - very flirty! I was afraid of Leo. He never gave me trouble, he knew I was young, but he was Mr. California - he flirted with everybody! I saw Andy through the years - he would follow me in dinner theaters, or I would follow him. My second husband, Randy Hale, and Andy were both members of the Bohemian Club. Andy was cute with me, joking with me, teasing me. Dan Dailey was still using the name Dan Dailey Jr. when 'Timber!' was shot. He was kind of distracted at the time - he was going in the Army.
- [on why she left Universal in 1943] They refused to give me the big salary increase I was due, so I went to Republic and did a second film with my husband, John Archer, Shantytown (1943). The first one we did was Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943).
- [Clayton Moore] was an oddball and we worked together often, but I didn't get friendly with him. He'd go off on his own, and do whatever. There were always new people coming in all the time - you don't spend time with them unless you knew them before. You just didn't get close, there was no time to play games.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content