Madeleine Carroll

Beautiful blonde Madeleine Carroll in a 1936 glamour sitting by photographer Eugene Robert Richee. Born Edith Madeleine Carroll on February 26, 1906 in West Bromwich, United Kingdom, Carroll became a stage actress in 1927 and quickly moved into films, taking a role in “The Guns of Loos” (1928). She followed it with “The First Born” (1928), which really established her in films. In 1930, she starred in “Atlantic”, then co-starred with Brian Aherne in “The W Plan” (1930). She then signed a contract with Gaumont British for whom she made “Sleeping Car” (1932), the big hit “I Was a Spy” (1933) and in “The Dictator” (1935), she played Caroline Matilda of Great Britain. Carroll then attracted the attention of Alfred Hitchcock and in 1935 starred as one of the director's earliest prototypical cool, intelligent blondes in “The 39 Steps”. The film became a sensation and with it so did Carroll. Poised for international stardom, Carroll accepted a lucrative deal with Paramount Pictures and was cast opposite George Brent in “The Case Against Mrs. Ames” (1936). She followed this with “The General Died at Dawn” (1936), and was borrowed by 20th Century Fox to play the female lead in “Lloyd's of London” (1936). She stayed at the studio to make “On the Avenue” (1937) and was then was cast by David O. Selznick as Ronald Colman's love interest in the 1937 box-office success “The Prisoner of Zenda”. Back at Paramount she made some comedies with Fred MacMurray, “Cafe Society” (1939) and “Honeymoon in Bali” (1939). She starred in the Technicolored films “North West Mounted Police” (1940), “Virginia” (1941) and “Bahama Passage” (1941) and was Bob Hope's love interest in “My Favorite Blonde” (1942). She was reunited with MacMurray for “An Innocent Affair” (1948) and her last film was “The Fan” (1949). Carroll retired from acting and spent the rest of her life living in Paris and then Spain, passing away from pancreatic cancer in 1987, aged 81.

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