Peggie Castle

The archetypal "gangster's mistress," American actress Peggie Castle started out as a magazine model. She made her first film in 1947, and within three years, she was prominently cast as a succession of gun molls, b-girls and murderesses. With her bleached-blonde hair, garish makeup and tight-fitting sweaters, Peggie Castle seemed to have stepped out of the pages of Mickey Spillane, and in fact starred in two films based on Spillane's works: I, the Jury (1953) and The Long Wait (1954). She cleaned up her image a bit to co-star in two Warner Bros. TV westerns of the 1960s: The Lawman and The Outlaw. Peggie also popped up unexpectedly as a no-nonsense newspaper reporter in the sci-fi cheapie The Beginning of the End (1957). She was married for a time to producer William McGarry. After abruptly ending her career in 1962, Castle,died in obscurity of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 46.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide