Maggie McNamara

Marguerite "Maggie" McNamara (June 18, 1928 – February 18, 1978) was an American actress and model.
McNamara began her career as a teenage fashion model, soon becoming one of the most successful models of the 1940s. Her photos were published in magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. In March 1948 she appeared on the cover of Life Magazine. This attention led to offers for film roles, which she initially rejected. She gained recognition as an actress in the controversial film The Moon Is Blue directed by Otto Preminger, reprising the role she played in the Chicago production of the play. She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the film.
By the mid-1950s, McNamara's mental health began to decline. She appeared in two films after The Moon Is Blue and made her final film in 1963. After five guest-starring roles in television series in early 1960s, she retired from acting. For the remainder of her life, she worked as a typist in New York City. In February 1978, McNamara died of a barbiturate overdose at the age of 49.

McNamara was born in New York City, the daughter of Irish American parents Helen (née Fleming 1888-1968) and Timothy McNamara (1888-1955). She had two sisters, Helen and Cathleen, and a brother, Robert. Her mother was born in England to Irish parents. Her parents divorced when she was nine years old.

She attended Textile High School in New York. McNamara became one of the most successful models of John Robert Powers' modeling agency after Powers saw some photos of her, he signed her to his agency with her mother's encouragement. She later commented on her modeling days:

"I was terribly shy and I used to work on myself to keep from showing it. When I was facing a camera I pretended that neither it nor the photographer were there. I played a game with myself according to the clothes I was wearing. [..] You have to feel right in what you are wearing, to have it look right. Just as each period has its own fashion, each person has his own style. When you find it I think you should stay with it. When I was modeling I had to dress exactly as Vogue wanted the picture to be. But any good quality becomes something else when it is overdone and I feel that this applies to being too clothes conscious. I don't care what the fashion dictator says. I will not follow if it's not right for me. But your over-all impression consists of more than clothes. Your grooming, posture, the sound of your voice and your perfume play a part in the total picture you create."

In April 1950 she appeared on the cover of Life magazine for a second time. After seeing her photos, David O. Selznick reportedly offered her a film contract. She turned it down and had no intentions to become an actress, but later decided to attend acting classes in New York.

In 1951, McNamara began her professional acting career when she was cast as Patty O'Neill in the Chicago stage production of The Moon Is Blue. Written by F. Hugh Herbert, the play was already a Broadway hit starring Barbara Bel Geddes. Also in 1951, she starred on Broadway in The King of Friday's Men, which ran for four performances.

In 1953, McNamara went to Hollywood to reprise her role in Otto Preminger's film adaptation of The Moon Is Blue. The film was highly controversial at the time due to its sexual themes and frank dialogue (the play and the film contain the words "virgin", "pregnant" and "seduce"). As a result, the film failed to secure the seal of approval from the MPAA. United Artists, who produced The Moon Is Blue, decided to release the film anyway. It was promptly banned in Kansas, Ohio, and Maryland and given a "Condemned" rating by the National Legion of Decency. Despite the controversy, the film was a success and earned $3.5 million at the box office. While box office returns were strong, The Moon Is Blue received mixed reviews. McNamara's performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer to Film.

After filming, McNamara signed with 20th Century Fox and was cast in the 1954 romantic drama film Three Coins in the Fountain. The film was generally well received and helped to boost McNamara's popularity. The following year, she co-starred opposite Richard Burton in the biographical film Prince of Players. Although McNamara's career started off well, she made only one more film after Prince of Players. Part of the reason why her career stalled has been attributed to her refusal to move to Los Angeles. She also reportedly refused to do publicity for her films or pose for the cheesecake shots that studios generally expected their female stars to do. Her career troubles also were due to emotional problems. In his 1977 memoir, director Otto Preminger wrote that, "Maggie suffered greatly after becoming a star. Something went wrong with her marriage to director David Swift. She suffered a nervous breakdown."

In 1955, her father died, and McNamara did not accept any screen roles for the remainder of the decade. In 1962, she returned to acting in the Broadway play Step on a Crack. The following year, Otto Preminger cast her in a small role in The Cardinal. It proved to be her final film role. In 1962, she performed in a production of Neil Simon's Come Blow Your Horn with Darren McGavin at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Florida. She had previously worked with McGavin on a one-night only performance of Shakespeares' Measure for Measure. In 1963, McNamara turned to television. She guest-starred on an episode of Ben Casey and starred as the title character in the Season 5 Twilight Zone episode "Ring-a-Ding Girl". McNamara's last onscreen appearance was in the July 1964 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour entitled "Body in the Barn", opposite Lillian Gish.

In March 1951, McNamara married actor/director David Swift. The couple had no children and they divorced (he remarried in 1957). McNamara never remarried. After her divorce, she had a relationship with screenwriter Walter Bernstein.

After her last onscreen role in 1964, McNamara fell out of public view. For the remaining fifteen years of her life, she worked temp jobs as a typist to support herself. Her obituary noted she had been writing scripts, including one titled The Mighty Dandelion.

On February 18, 1978, McNamara was found dead on the couch of her New York City apartment. She had taken a deliberate overdose of sleeping pills and tranquilizers and left a suicide note on her piano. According to police reports, she had a history of mental illness and friends reported that she had suffered from acute depression.

She is interred with her family in Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.