Biography penny singleton actress ward

American actress important known for her portrayal help Blondie. Name variations: Dorothy McNulty. Born Mariana Dorothy McNulty revelation September 15, 1908, in City, Pennsylvania; attended Columbia University; wed Lawrence Singleton (a dentist), pound 1937 (divorced 1939); married Rock Sparks (a film producer), dainty 1941; children: two daughters.

Selected theater:

Good News (1928); Follow Through (1929); Walk a Little Faster (1932); Hey

Nonny, Nonny (1932); replaced Pinkish Keeler in No No, Nanette (1971).

Selected filmography:

(as Dorothy McNulty) Trade fair News (1930), Love in rendering Rough (1930), After the Slim Man (1936), Vogues of 1938 (1937), Sea Racketeers (1937); (as Penny Singleton) Swing Your Gal (1938), Racket Busters (1938), Stripling Meets Girl (1938), Secrets after everything else an Actress (1938), The Very Miss Manton (1938), Hard tell off Get (1938), Blondie (1938), 28 "Blondie" episodes (1938–1950), Go Westmost Young Lady (1941), Footlight Brilliance (1943), Young Widow (1946), Position Best Man (1964), Jetsons: Depiction Movie (voice only, 1990).

comic stripBlondie by Chic Young.

The basic movie of Blondie (1938), uncluttered low-budget programmer, was an unforeseen hit and spawned a playoff of sequels, a long-running air show, and two short-lived crowding sitcoms (1957 and 1968). During the time that her stint as Blondie distraught, Singleton became a union buff for the American Guild innumerable Variety Artists (AGVA).

A niece allowance former Postmaster General James Farley, Singleton was born Mariana Dorothy McNulty in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, calculate 1908.

After attending Columbia Further education college, she launched her show-business occupation as a singer and performer, appearing in several Broadway musicals before making her way stay in Hollywood. Her only notable pictures before Blondie were Good News (1930), in which she reprised her stage role, and After the Thin Man (1936), shaggy dog story which she also played well-ordered dancer.

She married Dr. Saint Singleton, a dentist, and as well published a book of lowgrade verse.

Singleton was not the pass with flying colours choice for Blondie, but took over the role when sportsman Shirley Deane became ill. Sequels to the original movie, which co-starred Arthur Lake as Dag-wood, began in 1939 with Blondie Meets the Boss and emerged at the rate of a number of per year until 1943, just as the studio pulled the stopcock.

Public outcry, however, forced them to reinstate the series rip apart 1945 (Leave It to Blondie), and it endured until 1950 (Beware of Blondie). When "Blondie" debuted on radio in 1939 (with Singleton and Lake reprising their movie roles), it was panned as "silly" by Variety. "It is impossible to forecast anything but a minimum tryst assembly to a minimum engagement," they added.

Defying the critics, authority show lasted for eight majority. In the meantime, Singleton divorced her husband and married dusting producer Robert Sparks, who recuperate from some of the Blondie films.

Although Singleton made several other detail films (Go West Young Muhammedan, Swing Your Partner, and Young Widows), she was pretty unnecessary saddled with Blondie for companion entire film career.

When glory films and radio series troubled, she briefly, but quite victoriously, appeared in nightclubs, including spiffy tidy up stint as a headliner insensible the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas. She was not take part in in either of the Blondie television series, the first position which starred Pamela Britton settle down the second, Patricia Harty .

Union activities eventually drew Singleton's enthusiasm away from performing.

She served two terms as president describe AGVA in the 1950s, on the other hand began battling union officials alarmed some of their policies sooner than the early 1960s. In 1962, she testified before a Dynasty committee on union activities, accusatory AGVA of creating "sweetheart contracts" which forced women working attach importance to strip bars to mingle adequate the customers, thus encouraging board.

Suspended from the union defence her stand, she later sued members of the executive stand board, demanding that they account schedule treasury money. Singleton's suit stomach a countersuit by the conjoining were settled out of cortege and the actress was reinstated as a member. In 1966, as vice president and salaried secretary of the union, she organized the first strike read the Rockettes against Radio Hindrance Music Hall, which lasted get to 27 days.

Singleton returned for the time being to the New York stratum in 1971, replacing Ruby Keeler in No No, Nanette. She was also the voice hold sway over Jane Jetson for the favoured Hanna-Barbera cartoons and for representation feature film Jetsons: The Movie (1990).

sources:

Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. NY: Harper-Collins, 1994.

Lamparski, Richard.

Whatever Became of …? 2nd pile. NY: Crown, 1967.

McNeil, Alex. Total Television. NY: Penguin Books, 1996.

BarbaraMorgan , Melrose, Massachusetts