Peggy Moran

Pretty Peggy Moran -- as the American actress was invariably described in press releases and reviews -- was the daughter of prominent portrait artist Earl Moran. She was brought to Hollywood by her mother, a former dancer, where the young girl received a screen tests and a handful of movie bit parts. After a few years' radio work, Peggy appeared in support of Deanna Durbin in Universal's First Love (1939) and Spring Parade (1940), both directed by Peggy's future husband Henry Koster. Under contract to Universal, Peggy was decorative in One Night in the Tropics (1940) (Abbott and Costello's screen debut), appropriately frightened in The Mummy's Hand (1941) and amusing in There's One Born Every Minute (1942) (another screen debut, this time Elizabeth Taylor's). After her marriage, Peggy retired, appearing only as a lark in Koster's pictures. Never a star, Peggy Moran was always a most welcome starlet; things might have been different had her agent not ignored a producer's request to have Peggy read for the Broadway play Life With Father, which would eventually run longer than any other "straight" play in History.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide