Margaret Hayes

Margaret Hayes (born Florette Regina Ottenheimer; December 5, 1913^[1] – January 26, 1977) was an American film, stage, and television actress.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Hayes was one of four children born to Clara Bussey and Jacob Lewis "Jack" Ottenheimer, erstwhile songwriter, joke-book writer, radio performer turned real estate broker, who had, at one time, reportedly provided much of the material for the famous magician, Howard Thurston.^[2]

While a student at Forest Park High School,^[3] she joined the Emerson Cook Stock Company to gain more acting experience.^[4] She entered Johns Hopkins University to become a nurse, but stuck to her dramatic ambitions. At the school, she joined "The Barnstormers", a theatrical organization, becoming the first female member of that group.^[4]

Using the name "Dana Dale" (reportedly at the suggestion of columnist Walter Winchell ^[2] ), Hayes found work as a model, "featured in the best cigarette, auto, and fashion advertisements".^[5] Her screen test for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind was unsuccessful, but she received a movie contract, anyway. Publicists at her studio recommended "Dana Edwards" as a better name for movies, so she began using it. Eventually, she changed to Margaret Hayes for public purposes, and was called Maggie by her friends.^[5]

Hayes' initial contract was with Warner Bros. Having little success there, she signed with Paramount Pictures.^[6]

Hayes was often billed as Maggie Hayes in her film credits. She is perhaps best known for her Oscar-nominated performance as schoolteacher Lois Judby Hammond in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle .^[7] In 1956, she guest-starred as Dora Hand in three episodes of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp . She appeared in the episode "The San Saba Incident" (October 18, 1957) of Trackdown , playing a female convict, named Abby Lindon.^[8]

Hayes' films included The Glass Key , Sullivan's Travels , and Good Day for a Hanging . In 1958, in the film Damn Citizen, Hayes appeared opposite Keith Andes in the role of a real person, Dorothy Maguire Grevemberg, the wife of the crusading Louisiana State Police superintendent Francis Grevemberg. She made four guest appearances on CBS's Perry Mason , including as defendant Sybil Granger in 1957 episode "The Case of the Nervous Accomplice". She co-starred on Tombstone Territory season 1 episode 24 'Cave-In' which aired March 26, 1958. In 1961, she portrayed Mrs. North in the episode "Incident of the Night on the Town" on CBS"s Rawhide .^[9] In the same year, she also guest-starred in an episode of Bonanza , "The Countess", as Lady Linda Chadwick.

After marrying Herbert Bayard Swope in 1946, Hayes temporarily retired from acting and turned to journalism, eventually becoming assistant fashion editor for Life .^[10]

In her later years, Hayes lived in Palm Beach, Florida, and was the host of a daily radio talk show^[10] on WPBR.^[11]

Hayes had her first child, a daughter Nan (born 1937), from her brief first marriage to Charles DeBuskey. The couple divorced in 1939, and Hayes subsequently married actor Leif Erickson on June 12, 1942,^[12] eloping with him to Minden, Nevada. They separated 28 days later, and Hayes received a divorce on October 2, 1942.^[13] In 1947 she married a third time, to producer Herbert B. Swope, Jr. (son of three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting, journalist Herbert Swope ^[14] ), with whom she had a daughter, actress Tracy Brooks Swope, and a son, Herbert Swope III. They divorced in 1973.^[10]

On January 26, 1977, aged 63, Hayes died of cancer in Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida.^{[7] [10]}

• Margaret Hayes at IMDb
• Margaret Hayes at the Internet Broadway Database
• Margaret Hayes at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

• 1916 births
• 1977 deaths
• American film actresses
• American stage actresses
• American television actresses
• Deaths from hepatitis
• Jewish American actresses
• Deaths from liver cancer in Florida
• Actresses from Baltimore
• 20th-century American actresses
• Paramount Pictures contract players
• Warner Bros. contract players
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Internet Broadway Database person ID same as Wikidata
• Internet Off-Broadway Database person ID same as Wikidata