Nancy Carroll

This article is about the American actress, 1903–1965. For the British actress, born 1974, see Nancy Carroll (British actress). For actress of a similar name, see Nancy Carell.

Nancy Carroll
Born	Ann Veronica Lahiff (1903-11-19)November 19, 1903 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	(1965-08-06)August 6, 1965 (aged 61) New York City, U.S.
Cause of death	Aneurysm
Resting place	Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York City
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1923–1965
Spouse(s)	Jack Kirkland (1925–1930) Francis Bolton Mallory (1931–1935) C.H. "Jappe" Groen (1953–1965)

Nancy Carroll (November 19, 1903 – August 6, 1965) was an American actress.

Career

She was christened Ann Veronica Lahiff in New York City. Of Irish parentage, she and her sister once performed a dancing act in a local contest of amateur talent. This led her to a stage career and then to the screen. She began her acting career in Broadway musicals. She became a successful actress in "talkies" because her musical background enabled her to play in the movie musicals of the 1930s. Her film debut was in Ladies Must Dress in 1927.

In 1928 she made eight films. One of them, Easy Come, Easy Go, co-starring Richard Dix, made her a star. In 1929 she starred in The Wolf of Wall Street along with George Bancroft and Olga Baclanova. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930 for The Devil's Holiday. Among her other films are Laughter (1930), Paramount on Parade (1930), Hot Saturday (1932) with Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933) directed by James Whale, and Broken Lullaby aka The Man I Killed (1932) directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

Under contract to Paramount Pictures, Carroll often balked at the roles being offered to her and earned a reputation as a recalcitrant and uncooperative actress. In spite of her ability to successfully tackle light comedies, tearful melodramas, and even musicals, and as well as garnering considerable praise by the critics and public (she received the most fan mail of any star in the early 1930s), she was released by the studio. In the mid-1930s under a four-film contract with Columbia Pictures, she made four rather insignificant films and was no longer an A-list actress.

Later years

Carroll retired from films in 1938, returned to the stage, and starred in the early television series The Aldrich Family in 1950. In the following year, she guest starred in the television version of The Egg and I, starring her daughter, Patricia Kirkland.

Death

On August 6, 1965, she was found dead after failing to arrive at the theater for a performance. The cause of her death was an aneurysm. She was 61 years old.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Nancy Carroll has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1719 Vine Street.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1927	Ladies Must Dress	Mazie
1928	Abie's Irish Rose	Rosemary Murphy
	Easy Come, Easy Go	Barbara Quayle
	Chicken a La King	Maisie Devoe
	The Water Hole	Judith Endicott
	Manhattan Cocktail	Babs Clark	Lost film except for one-minute montage sequence by Slavko Vorkapich
	The Shopworn Angel	Daisy Heath	(*incomplete; Library of Congress)
1929	The Wolf of Wall Street	Gert
	Sin Sister	Pearl
	Close Harmony	Marjorie Merwin
	The Dance of Life	Bonny Lee King
	Illusion	Claire Jernigan
	Sweetie	Barbara Pell
1930	Dangerous Paradise	Alma	Alternate title: Two Against Death
	Honey	Olivia Dangerfield
	The Devil's Holiday	Hallie Hobart	Nominated for Best Actress Academy Award
	Laughter	Peggy Gibson
	Paramount on Parade	Herself	cameo appearance
	Follow Thru	Lora Moore
1931	Stolen Heaven	Mary
	Night Angel	Yula Martini
	Personal Maid	Nora Ryan
1932	Broken Lullaby	Fraulein Elsa	Alternate title: The Man I Killed
	Wayward	Daisy Frost
	Hot Saturday	Ruth Brock
	Scarlet Dawn	Tanyusha Krasnoff
	Under-Cover Man	Lora Madigan
1933	Child of Manhattan	Madeleine McGonegle
	The Woman Accused	Glenda O'Brien
	The Kiss Before the Mirror	Maria Held
	I Love That Man	Grace Clark
1934	Springtime for Henry	Julia Jelliwell
	Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round	Sally Marsh	Alternate title: Keep 'Em Laughing
	Jealousy	Josephine "Jo" Douglas O'Roarke
1935	I'll Love You Always	Nora Clegg
	After the Dance	Anne Taylor
	Atlantic Adventure	Helen Murdock
1938	That Certain Age	Grace Bristow
	There Goes My Heart	Dorothy Moore
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950–1951	The Aldrich Family	Alice Aldrich #2	Unknown episodes
1951	Faith Baldwin Romance Theatre		1 episode
	The Egg and I	Betty's mother	Unknown episodes
1959	The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen	Fanny Wilson	1 episode
1961	Naked City	Bernice Hacker	1 episode
1962	The United States Steel Hour		2 episodes
1963	Rockabye the Infantry	Hortense Tyler	Television movie
1963	Going My Way	Nora Callahan	"Cornelius Come Home" (her final screen role on ABC-TV)

External links

• Nancy Carroll at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nancy Carroll at IMDb
• Nancy Carroll at AllMovie
• Nancy Carroll at Find a Grave
• Photographs of Nancy Carroll
• Set of Carroll portraits and promotional shots