American actress Marguerite Chapman was 19 years old when she became a movie starlet. As a younger variation of the "hard-bitten broad" character usually portrayed by Claire Trevor, Ms. Chapman worked steadily at 20th Century-Fox, Warner Bros, and especially Columbia. She also co-starred with Kane Richmond in the 1942 Republic serial Spy Smasher. By the end of the 1940s, Chapman had resigned herself to a permanent niche in Hollywood's second echelon of actresses, remaining busy until 1955's The Seven Year Itch. She popped up all over the place during the first decade of television, guest-starring in such 1950s anthologies as Science Fiction Theatre, TV Reader's Digest, Four Star Playhouse and Climax; her last TV appearance was on a 1959 episode of Rawhide. She ill-advisedly agreed to one last film appearance in the ultracheap The Amazing Transparent Man (1960), in which she once more played a tough, boozy tart. Marguerite Chapman then married English producer/director Anthony-Havelock Allen and retreated to a happy retirement in Hawaii.
by Hal Erickson
biography
