Marcy McGuire

This Kansas redhead, only 16 when she was cast in Seven Days' Leave (1942), was already working as a nightclub entertainer. When her first role received excellent notices, stressing her singing and wide-eyed appeal, she was signed to an RKO contract. RKO made little use of her comedy talent, assigning her to a series of second leads for "jitterbug appeal" in low-budget musicals. In most of these, she played a mature-looking, boy-crazy teen with a vital, stimulating personality. Her most memorable screen moment (aside from her songs) was swooning at Frank Sinatra's feet in Higher and Higher (1943). Following her marriage to actor Wally Cassell in 1947, she had only two more roles, and definitely retired from acting in 1952. Husband Cassell (in films 1943-58) went into business, and the couple subsequently owned the prosperous Law Printing Co., which was sold in 1993. Marcy has two children and is a grandmother.