biography

Marjorie Lord Born Marjorie Wollenberg in San Francisco on July 26, 1918, pretty Marjorie Lord moved with her family to New York in 1933, during the depths of the Great Depression. With training in both acting and dance, she appeared on Broadway in 1935 in The Old Maid and also toured with the play. Her good notices earned her a a contract with RKO in early 1937. Her first film for the studio was the action flick Border Cafe (1937; with John Beal). After several more features with RKO, Lord's contract was dropped. She returned to touring in stage plays and took the lead role in the Westinghouse travelogue film The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939). After touring southern California with Edward Everett Horton in the play Springtime for Henry, Universal signed her to a long-term contract.

Marjorie LordMarjorie LordMarjorie LordMarjorie Lord and Randolph HaleMarjorie Lord

LEFT: A 1940 promotional photo of Marjorie Lord from the play Springtime for Henry. CENTER A and B: Early 1940s Universal stills. CENTER C: Lord married second husband, producer Randolph Hale, in 1958. RIGHT: Late 1950s cheesecake photo

Lord met actor John Archer when they worked together in a stage production, and the couple married in December 1941. Meanwhile, Universal began a build-up for the young ingenue and cast her in her first Universal feature Escape from Hong Kong (1942; with Leo Carrillo and Andy Devine). With the birth of her son, Gregg, and the end of her Universal contract, Lord again headed to Broadway, acting in a couple of plays before the 1947 birth of her look-alike daughter, actress Anne Archer. Lord went back to Hollywood in 1948 with a starring role as the title character in the Eagle-Lion noir The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948; with Robert Shayne). Her marriage to John Archer did not fare as well as her career. Increasingly disturbed by her husband's alcohol problem, the couple separated in 1951 and divorced in 1953. Following the breakup of her marriage, Lord took many guest roles on popular television series such as The Lone Ranger and Fireside Theatre before being cast as the second wife of Danny Thomas on the long-running ABC/CBS series Make Room for Daddy in 1957.

the films of marjorie lord

Hideaway (1937)

Marjorie Lord, Fred Stone, and William Corson

From the RKO comedy Hideaway with Fred Stone and William Corson

Timber! (1942)

Dan Dailey, Marjorie Lord, and Leo Carillo

With Dan Dailey and Leo Carillo in the Univeral romance Timber!

Johnny Come Lately (1943)

Marjorie Lord

As Jane in the drama Johnny Come Lately

New Orleans (1947)

Arturo de Cordova and Marjorie Lord

With Arturo de Cordova in the musical New Orleans, released by United Artists

The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948)

Marjorie Lord

Lobby card from Lord's Eagle-Lion noir thriller The Strange Mrs. Crane

Masked Raiders (1949)

Gary Gray, Richard Martin, Tim Holt, and Marjorie Lord

With Gary Gray, Richard Martin, and Tim Holt in the RKO western Masked Raiders

Mexican Manhunt (1953)

Marjorie Lord and George Brent

With George Brent in the Allied Artists mystery Mexican Manhunt

Rebel City (1953)

Robert Kent, Marjorie Lord, and Bill Elliot

With Robert Kent and Bill Elliot in the Allied Artists western Rebel City

Make Room for Daddy (1953–1965 ABC/CBS TV series)

Marjorie Lord and Danny ThomasMarjorie Lord and Danny Thomas

With Danny Thomas in Thomas' long-running situation comedy series Make Room for Daddy. Lord served as a sort-of replacement for actress Jean Hagen, who departed the series in 1956

Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)

Marjorie Lord, Elke Sommer, and Bob HopeKelly Thordsen, Marjorie Lord, Bob Hope, Benny Baker, Cesare Danova, and Elke Sommer

LEFT: With Elke Sommer and Bob Hope in the comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!, released by United Artists. RIGHT: With Kelly Thordsen, Bob Hope, Benny Baker, Cesare Danova, and Elke Sommer

Sweet Surrender (1987 NBC TV series)

David Doyle and Marjorie Lord

With David Doyle in the short-lived NBC situational comedy Sweet Surrender. This was Lord's last TV series

later years

Following the end of the series Make Room for Daddy, which left the air in 1964, Marjorie Lord put her acting career on the back burner. Lord's son and daughter were grown, and she had married producer Randolph Hale in 1958. On occasion, she would accept a role on television and in film, such as the Bob Hope comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966; with Elke Sommer and Cesare Danova). Lord returned to television when Danny Thomas revived his successful series in 1970, retitling it as Make Room for Granddaddy, but ABC canceled the show in 1971 after 24 episodes. Her final series was the NBC sit-com Sweet Surrender, which aired in 1987. Lord retired from the screen in the late 1980s. Her second husband left her a widow in 1974, and she was widowed again in 2000. Lord passed away from natural causes at age 97 on November 28, 2015.

filmography

FILM
Side by Side (1988) with Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Danny Thomas, Morey Amsterdam, Richard Kline, Michael Lembeck, and Jennifer Bassey
The Pirate (1978) with Franco Nero, Anne Archer, Olivia Hussey, Ian McShane, Christopher Lee, Michael Constantine, James Franciscus, Armand Assante, Stuart Whitman, and Eli Wallach
The Missing Are Deadly (1975) with Ed Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Jose Ferrer, and Kathleen Quinlan
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966) with Bob Hope, Elke Sommer, Phyllis Diller, Cesare Danova, and Joyce Jameson
Special for Women: The Menace of Age (1964) with Robert Brubaker, Jeanette Nolan, and Arthur O'Connell
Port of Hell (1954) with Dane Clark, Carole Mathews, Marshall Thompson, and Wayne Morris
Mexican Manhunt (1953) with George Brent, Hillary Brooke, Morris Ankrum, and Karen Sharpe
Down Laredo Way (1953) with Rex Allen, Slim Pickens, Dona Drake, Judy Nugent, and Clayton Moore
Rebel City (1953) with Bill Elliott, Robert Kent, and Denver Pyle
Stop That Cab (1951) with Sid Melton, Tom Neal, Greg McClure, and Minerva Urecal
The Valparaiso Story (1951) with Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, and Tom Neal
The Sword of D'Artagnan (1950) with Robert Clarke
Chain Gang (1950) with Douglas Kennedy
The Lost Volcano (1950) with Johnny Sheffield, Donald Woods, and Elena Verdugo
Riding High (1950) with Bing Crosby, Coleen Gray, Charles Bickford, Frances Gifford, William Demarest, Ward Bond, Percy Kilbride, and Margaret Hamilton
Masked Raiders (1949) with Tim Holt, Tom Tyler, and Clayton Moore
Air Hostess (1949) with Gloria Henry, Ross Ford, Ann Doran, Leatrice Joy, Barbara Billingsley, Grady Sutton, and Myron Healey
The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948) with Robert Shayne
The Argyle Secrets (1948) with William Gargan, Ralph Byrd, John Banner, Barbara Billingsley, and Peter Brocco
New Orleans (1947) with Arturo de Cordova, Dorothy Patrick, Billie Holiday, Woody Herman, and Louis Armstrong
Johnny Come Lately (1943) with James Cagney, Marjorie Main, Hattie McDaniel, and Margaret Hamilton
Shantytown (1943) with Mary Lee, John Archer, Billy Gilbert, Anne Revere, and Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) with Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, George Zucco, and John Archer
Hi, Buddy (1943) with Dick Foran, Harriet Hilliard-Nelson, Tommy Cook, and Jennifer Holt
Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1943) with Tom Brown, Rose Hobart, Edgar Barrier, Keye Luke, Sidney Toler, and Turhan Bey
Moonlight in Havana (1942) with Allan Jones, Jane Frazee, and William Frawley
Timber! (1942) with Leo Carrillo, Andy Devine, Dan Dailey, and Nestor Paiva
Escape from Hong Kong (1942) with Leo Carrillo and Andy Devine
About Face (1942) with William Tracy, Margaret Dumont, Veda Ann Borg, Frank Faylen, and Charles Lane
The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939) with Jimmy Lydon and Ruth Lee
High Flyers (1937) with Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Lupe Velez, Jack Carson, and Margaret Dumont
Forty Naughty Girls (1937) with James Gleason, Zasu Pitts, Joan Woodbury, and Barbara Pepper
Hideaway (1937) with J. Carrol Naish and Tommy Bond
On Again Off Again (1937) with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey
Border Cafe (1937) with Harry Carey, John Beal, Armida, George Irving, and J. Carrol Naish

TELEVISION SERIES
Sweet Surrender, 1987 NBC TV series. Lord portrayed Joyce Holden
Make Room for Granddaddy, 1970-1971 ABC TV series. Lord portrayed Kathy 'Clancey' Williams
Make Room for Daddy, 1953-1964 ABC/CBS TV series. Lord portrayed Kathy 'Clancey' Williams from 1957-1964

TELEVISION GUEST APPEARANCES
The Love Boat, episode April's Love/Happy Ending/We Three, originally aired January 12, 1980
Fantasy Island, episode Family Reunion/Voodoo, originally aired February 18, 1978
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, episode Mystery of the Fallen Angels, originally aired April 17, 1977
Love, American Style, episode Love and the Modern Wife/Love and the Phonies/Love and the Single Couple, originally aired October 27, 1969
The Danny Thomas Hour, episode Make More Room for Daddy, originally aired November 6, 1967
The Joey Bishop Show, episode This Is Your Life, originally aired October 11, 1961
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, episode Lucy Makes Room for Danny, originally aired December 1, 1958
Wagon Train, episode The Willy Moran Story, originally aired September 18, 1957
Zane Grey Theater, episode Decision at Wilson's Creek, originally aired May 17, 1957
Wire Service, episode Hideout, originally aired October 18, 1956
TV Reader's Digest, episode Lost, Strayed, and Lonely, originally aired March 5, 1956
The Loretta Young Show, episode A Shadow Between, originally aired December 18, 1955
The Star and the Story, episode Newspaper Man, originally aired May 21, 1955
The Lone Ranger, episode The Law Lady, originally aired February 24, 1955
Cavalcade of America, episode Decision for Justice, originally aired February 15, 1955
Cavalcade of America, episode Take Off Zero, originally aired February 1, 1955
Climax!, episode Epitaph for a Spy, originally aired December 9, 1954
The Ford Television Theatre, episode Shadow of Truth, originally aired October 14, 1954
Cavalcade of America, episode The Great Gamble, originally aired October 5, 1954
Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson, episode Hands, originally aired May 26, 1954
Fireside Theatre, episode Like Father, So the Son, originally aired May 4, 1954
Hopalong Cassidy, episode Tricky Fingers, originally aired April 2, 1954
Schlitz Playhouse, episode Her Kind of Honor, originally aired March 19, 1954
G.E. True Theater, episode That Other Sunlight, originally aired March 14, 1954
Four Star Playhouse, episode An Operation in Money, originally aired March 11,1954
Big Town, episode The Stranger, originally aired January 7, 1954
Ramar of the Jungle, episode Call to Danger, originally aired November 21, 1953
The Ford Television Theatre, episode The Jewel, originally aired May 28, 1953
Schlitz Playhouse, episode The Devil's Other Name, originally aired February 20, 1953
Fireside Theatre, episode The Return, originally aired February 10, 1953
Ramar of the Jungle, episode Blind Peril, originally aired January 1, 1953
The Ford Television Theatre, episode Edge of the Law, originally aired November 6, 1952
Fireside Theatre, episode Visit from a Stranger, originally aired October 28, 1952
China Smith, episode Devil-in-the-Godown, originally aired September 16, 1952
Fireside Theatre, episode Mirage, originally aired June 10, 1952
Fireside Theatre, episode Brown of Calaveras, originally aired April 15, 1952
The Adventures of Kit Carson, episode The Return of Trigger Dawson, originally aired December 1, 1951
Racket Squad, episode Babies for Sale, originally aired November 9, 1951
The Magnavox Theatre, episode The Three Musketeers, originally aired November 24, 1950
Fireside Theatre, episode The Kingdom Within, originally aired November 7, 1950
The Lone Ranger, episode Bullets for Ballots, originally aired May 11, 1950
Your Show Time, episode The Real Thing, originally aired March 11, 1949

marjorie lord television appearances

Watch Marjorie Lord in a March 1954 episode of Four Star Playhouse titled An Operation in Money

marjorie lord film now showing

Watch Marjorie Lord's 1942 mystery Sherlock Holmes in Washington
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