New York Times (03/Oct/1987) - Madeleine Carroll Dies at 81
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- article: Madeleine Carroll Dies at 81
- author(s): Eric Pace
- newspaper: New York Times (03/Oct/1987)
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Madeleine Carroll, Secret Agent (1936), The 39 Steps (1935), Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, Walter Wanger
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Madeleine Carroll Dies at 81
Film Actress of 30's and 40's
Madeleine Carroll, the cosmopolitan actress of the 1930's and 1940's who starred in the Alfred Hitchcock classics The 39 Steps and Secret Agent and more than three dozen other movies, died yesterday afternoon at her home outside the resort town of Marbella, Spain, a spokesman for the Marbella Hospital Clinic said. She was 81 years old.
The hospital spokesman said she died of natural causes, but did not give a cause of death.
A friend and neighbor of Miss Carroll, Countess Maria Larisch, said that the actress had been released from the Hospital Clinic a few days ago after spending more than two weeks there. Other members of the Marbella foreign community said that Miss Carroll, who became a United States citizen in 1943, had lived in the Mediterranean coast town for more than 15 years.
The actress, whose real name was Marie-Madeleine Bernadette O'Carroll, was born on Feb. 26, 1906, in West Bromwich, an industrial community five miles northwest of Birmingham, England. She was the daughter of John Carroll of Ireland and Helene de Rosiere Tuaillon, a Frenchwoman. Modeled Hats and Taught French
Miss Carroll was graduated from Birmingham University with a B.A. degree with honors in French. Her first jobs were modeling hats and teaching French. She made her acting debut as a French maid with a touring company in England. After a screen test, she got roles in several British movies, beginning with three 1928 films, The Guns of Loos, The First Born and What Money Can Buy.
A delicate blonde beauty, Miss Carroll appeared in a score of British movies, with leading roles in The 39 Steps (1935) and Secret Agent (1936). In 1936, too, she went to Hollywood, where she was put under contract to Walter Wanger and 20th Century-Fox.
In the United States she appeared in The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936), The General Died at Dawn (1936), Lloyd's of London (1936), On the Avenue (1937), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), It's All Yours (1937), Blockade (1938), Cafe Society (1939), Honeymoon in Bali (1939), My Son, My Son, (1940), North West Mounted Police (1940) Virginia (1941), One Night in Lisbon, (1941), Bahama Passage (1942), and My Favorite Blonde (1942). Relief Work in World War II
During World War II, her sister was killed in a German air raid on London, and Miss Carroll went back to England, where she did war-relief work.
After the war she resumed her film career briefly, appearing in White Cradle Inn (1946), An Innocent Affair — also entitled Don't Trust Your Husband (1948), and The Fan (1949) before retiring from film work for good. She later appeared on the stage and on television and worked for Unesco.
During her long career she also acted in radio dramas and on the stage in the United States.
Miss Carroll's four marriages, to Capt. Philip Astley, the actor Sterling Hayden, Henri Lavorel and Andrew Heiskell, an executive of Time Inc., ended in divorce.
