Nancy Carroll

 Nancy Carroll, born Ann Veronica Lahiff (November 19, 1903 – August 6, 1965)

She began her acting career in Broadway musicals. She became a successful actress in "talkies" because her musical background enabled her to play in movie musicals of the 1930s. Her film debut was in Ladies Must Dress in 1927. In 1928 she made eight films. One of them, Easy Come, Easy Go, co-starring Richard Dix, made her a star. In 1929 she starred in The Dance of Life with Hal Skelly, and The Wolf of Wall Street along with George Bancroft and Olga Baclanova. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930 for The Devil's Holiday. Among her other films are Laughter (1930), Paramount on Parade (1930), Hot Saturday (1932) with Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933) directed by James Whale, and Broken Lullaby aka The Man I Killed (1932) directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Under contract to Paramount Pictures, Carroll often balked at the roles the studio offered her and she earned a reputation as a recalcitrant and uncooperative actress. In spite of her ability to successfully tackle light comedies, tearful melodramas, and even musicals, and as well as garnering considerable praise by the critics and public – she received the most fan mail of any star in the early 1930s – she was released from her contract by the studio. Carroll retired from films in 1938, returned to the stage, and starred in the early television series The Aldrich Family in 1950.

Carroll was married three times, and had one child. On August 6, 1965, Carroll was found dead after failing to arrive at the theater for a performance. She was 61 years old. Carroll is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY.