- Born
- Died
- Birth namePeggy Ann Garner
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Actress Peggy Ann Garner was born Feb. 3, 1932, in Canton, Ohio. Her father was an English-born attorney, William H. Garner, who served as a U.S. Army officer during World War II. Virginia, her determined mother, got Peggy into summer stock and modeling before she was six. Estranged from her husband, Virginia moved with her daughter to Hollywood a year later. Peggy was cast in several films before gaining fame as Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). After years of separation and estrangement, her parents were divorced in 1947. Peggy, who had a falling out with her mother, went to court to have her father appointed as her guardian.
By the time she reached 20, she had moved from Hollywood to New York to try her talents on Broadway. She spent much of the 1950s living and working in New York, studying with the Actors Studio. She appeared on stage with Dorothy Gish in The Man in 1950, A Royal Family in 1951 and Home is the Hero in 1954. She also was in the road company of Bus Stop in 1955. She received Harvard's Hasty Pudding Award for Woman of the Year in 1956.
Her film career began to fade as she grew older, but she did stage and television work as well as a few other films, never recapturing her childhood fame. Even while earning her living as a real estate broker in the 1960s and as a fleet automobile sales manager during the 1970s, she dreamed of a return to the screen.
She was married and divorced three times. Her second husband was actor Albert Salmi, by whom she had a daughter, Catherine who died shortly after her mother Peggy's untimely death from cancer. Peggy's mother Virginia outlived both her only child and only grandchild.- IMDb Mini Biography By: ronjo07@aol.com
- SpousesKenyon Foster Brown(August 7, 1964 - 1968) (divorced)Albert Salmi(May 16, 1956 - March 14, 1963) (divorced, 1 child)Richard Hayes(February 22, 1951 - October 13, 1953) (divorced)
- ChildrenCatherine Ann Salmi
- No one knows the location of the Oscar that she received on March 7, 1946. This award was presented to her by Bob Hope.
- Took her special Oscar to bed with her the night she received it.
- Daughter Catherine Ann Salmi died in 1995 of premature heart disease at age 38. Peggy's strong-willed mother, Virginia Garner Swainston, had outlived both her only child and her only grandchild.
- Ed Sullivan gave her away when she married Richard Hayes on February 22, 1951. Her parents were absent from the event.
- In September 1952 Garner was in discussions with 20th Century Fox about returning to the screen in the Jean Negulesco film Titanic (1953) in the role of Annette Sturges. She lunched with the films producer/screenwriter Charles Brackett at Fox to discuss the role but the part ultimately went to Audrey Dalton.
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) - $1,250 weekly
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