Marguerite Churchill

Acting

Marguerite Churchill

Born 1910-12-26 · Kansas City, Missouri, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marguerite Churchill (December 26, 1910 – January 9, 2000) was an American film actress appearing in more than 25 films with a career spanning from 1929 to 1952. She is best known today as John Wayne's first leading lady, in The Big Trail (1930). She was the daughter of a producer who owned a chain of theaters, but he died when she was ten years old. She was educated in New York City at the Professional Children's School and the Theatre Guild Dramatic School. She appeared on stage and was applauded on Broadway as a leading lady when just sixteen years old. An official of the Fox Company saw her acting and gave her a contract which shortly afterwards led her to debut on screen in The Diplomats. Churchill played leading lady to John Wayne in Howard Hawk's The Big Trail (1930), an early widescreen epic and Wayne's first leading role. She appeared with Wayne the following year in Girls Demand Excitement (1931), with Spencer Tracy and George Raft in Quick Millions (1931), with Will Rogers in Ambassador Bill (1931), with Warner Oland in Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), with George O'Brien in Riders of the Purple Sage (1931), with Charles Farrell in Girl Without a Room (1933), with Ralph Bellamy in The Final Hour (1936), with Boris Karloff in The Walking Dead (1936), and with Edward Van Sloan in Dracula's Daughter (1936). She died on January 9, 2000, aged 89, from natural causes in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. She was survived by her daughter, Orin.

Acting credits

Born Reckless poster
5.7

In order to use the publicity to get re-elected, a judge sentences a notorious gangster to fight in the war.

Born Reckless

1930

Dracula's Daughter poster
6.0

A countess from Transylvania seeks a psychiatrist’s help to cure her vampiric cravings.

Dracula's Daughter

1936

The Big Trail poster
6.7

Young scout Breck Coleman leads a wagon train along the dangerous trail to Oregon as he tries to get the affection of the beautiful pioneer Ruth Cameron and plans his revenge on the harsh scoundrels who murdered a friend of his in the past.

The Big Trail

1930

Bunco Squad poster
6.1

Police sergeants Johnson and McManus take on Los Angeles confidence tricksters. Con man Tony Wells, lining up rich widow Jessica Royce as his latest mark, sets up a false paranormal society with other charlatans to convince the credulous Jessica that her late son is speaking to her through their sham seances. When the plan leads to murder, Johnson and McManus must bring the group down before they kill again.

Bunco Squad

1950

The Walking Dead poster
6.3

Down-on-his-luck John Ellman is framed for a judge's murder. After he's convicted and sentenced to death, witnesses come forth and prove his innocence. But it was too late for a stay to be granted and Ellman is executed. A doctor uses an experimental procedure to restore him to life, though the full outcome is other than expected.

The Walking Dead

1936

Forgotten Commandments poster
7.5

A framework story serves as context for a retelling of the Exodus story and, most importantly, a recycling of footage from the silent version of The Ten Commandments.

Forgotten Commandments

1932

The Only Girl in the Orchestra poster
6.5

Trailblazing double bassist Orin O'Brien never wanted the spotlight, but when Leonard Bernstein hired her in 1966 as the first female musician in the New York Philarmonic, it was inevitable that she would become the focus of much interest and fascination. Now 87 years old and recently retired, Orin looks back on her remarkable life and career, insisting that a fuss should not be made, much preferring to play a supporting role to the family, students, friends, and colleagues that surround her.

The Only Girl in the Orchestra

2023

Pleasure Crazed poster
7.0

Pleasure Crazed is a 1929 American sound drama film directed by Donald Gallaher.

Pleasure Crazed

1929

Good Intentions poster
9.0

When love came the way of this gentleman crook he turned to the right---only to be caught in the swirling eddy of his criminal past! (original ad)

Good Intentions

1930

They Had to See Paris poster
6.4

Oklahoma mechanic Pike Peters finds himself part owner of an oil field. His wife Idy, hitherto content, decides the family must go to Paris to get "culture" and meet "the right kind of people." Pike and his grown son and daughter soon have flirtatious French admirers; Idy rents a chateau from an impoverished aristocrat; while Pike responds to each new development with homespun wit. In the inevitable clash, will pretentiousness and sophistication or common sense triumph?

They Had to See Paris

1929

Girl Without a Room poster
6.5

A Tennessee art school student wins a scholarship to paint in Paris. He is thrilled until he arrives and discovers that his style is hopelessly passe and is considered trashy. The enterprising artist immediately changes style and begins painting highly-abstract moderns.

Girl Without a Room

1933

Speed Devils poster
5.3

A race car driver, injured during an accident, opens up a repair shop only to become the target of crooked government agents.

Speed Devils

1935

Man Hunt poster
10.0

A bored small-town teacher gets mixed up with an escaped bank robber.

Man Hunt

1936

The Valiant poster
6.1

A man condemned to execution tries to convince two women that he is not their son and brother, and that they must get on with their lives.

The Valiant

1929

Girls Demand Excitement poster
10.0

Peter Brooks is a hard-working, hard-up college student whose dislike of women attending college weakens under the amorous advances of spoiled socialite coed Joan Madison.

Girls Demand Excitement

1931

Quick Millions poster
7.3

A truck driver "too lazy to work and too nervous to steal" gets mixed up in racketeering. Naturally his underhanded business practices make him a pillar of the community.

Quick Millions

1931

Charlie Chan Carries On poster
7.0

Charlie steps in to solve the murder of a wealthy American found dead in a London hotel. Settings include London, Nice, San Remo, Honolulu and Hong Kong. Fast-paced with lots of wisecracking. The first film to star Warner Oland as Charlie Chan.

Charlie Chan Carries On

1931

Ambassador Bill poster
6.4

An American ambassador arrives in a small country that is being convulsed by political intrigue and civil unrest. He befriends the young boy who is to be the country's king, to ensure that the boy is prepared to take on the role and also to see that he lives long enough to assume the crown.

Ambassador Bill

1931

Alibi for Murder poster
6.5

A radio commentator named Perry Travis fancies himself a brilliant amateur detective. The cops wish he’d stick to his microphone and let them do the detecting. This proves impossible when a famed scientist is murdered in Perry’s studio, right in the middle of the interview. All evidence points to Perry, and he sets out to clear his name before the Shadow-like villain roaming the hallways of the radio station gets away with murder.

Alibi for Murder

1936

Murder by an Aristocrat poster
5.0

A wealthy family is blackmailed. Murder results. And a nurse at the scene of the crime is determined to figure out who-done-it.

Murder by an Aristocrat

1936

Riders of the Purple Sage poster
8.0

Lassiter's sister was killed and her young daughter taken and raised by outlaws. Years later Lassiter arrives at the Withersteen ranch looking for the now grown daughter. He immediately gets caught up in the ranch's struggle against rustlers. Trailing a rustled herd of horses leads him to the rustler's hideout and the missing daughter.

Riders of the Purple Sage

1931

Legion of Terror poster
7.0

Two newly-appointed postal inspectors, Frank Marshall and 'Slim" Hewitt, set out to track down the sender of a time-bomb to a U. S. Senator and, during their investigation, run across a hooded organization that is terrorizing an American city. They also meet Don Foster, who is loud in his condemnation of the terrorists, and his sister, Nancy, who fears for her brother's life.

Legion of Terror

1936

The Final Hour poster
7.5

A down-and-out lawyer gets back on his feet with help from a singer who later retains him to defend her on a murder charge.

The Final Hour

1936

Seven Faces poster
9.0

A 1929 American pre-Code drama film with fantasy elements that was released by Fox Film Corporation in the Fox Movietone sound-on-film system on December 1, 1929.

Seven Faces

1929