Peggy Rea
Birth : 1921-03-31, Los Angeles, California, USA
Death : 2011-02-05
History
Peggy Jane Rea was a Los Angeles-born American actress known for her many roles in television, often playing matronly characters.
Before she became an actress, Rea left UCLA to attend business school. She landed a job as a production secretary at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s. Later, she was an assistant to writer-musician Kay Thompson until Thompson dropped her in April 1948. Some of the points of discord apparently included Rea's insistence on staying at the Algonquin Hotel (rather than Essex House, where Thompson was staying), and disappearing, on at least one occasion, on the eve of their New York opening to see Born Yesterday on Broadway without telling Thompson. The time had come for Peggy to make her mark as the character actress she was born to be.
She quickly landed on her feet with a supporting role in the National Road Company production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (as Eunice Hubbell, 1948–1949) starring Anthony Quinn. Thompson severed ties with Rea, however the younger woman kept in touch with other members of Thompson's family, including Thompson's mother, brother and younger sister, with whom she enjoyed cordial relations.
Carter’s Secretary
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.
Flora
A polygraph examiner has an affair with a murder suspect after her test clears him, but new evidence then suggests that he's guilty after all.
Rose
The fourth Waltons reunion TV movie is set in the 1960s , with John-Boy still living in New York, trying to persuade his fiancée to marry him. Meanwhile, Ben and Cindy's daughter Virginia has died, and Cindy is finding life very lonely without her. She tells Ben that she would dearly love to adopt another baby, but Ben feels that it is not a good idea. Ben argues with his father about buying a new truck for their lumber company, but John keeps insisting that they can't afford it. Elsewhere, Erin now has three children and is separated from Paul. Her decision to start seeing another man causes some indignation among the other Walton family members. Ike and Corabeth become grandparents when Aimee has a daughter, while Elizabeth returns from Europe and reunites with Drew, her old beau.
Alberta
A young black woman discovers that her father was a sperm donor, and if that wasn't bad enough, he's white.
Mrs. Heisenbuttel
Dallas housewife Lurene Hallett's life revolves around the doings of Jacqueline Kennedy. She is devastated when President Kennedy is shot a few hours after she sees him arrive in Dallas. Despite her husband Ray's prohibition, she decides to attend the funeral in Washington, D.C. Forced to travel by bus, she befriends Jonell, the young black daughter of Paul Couter. Sensing something wrong, her good intentioned interference leads the mixed race threesome on an increasingly difficult journey to Washington with both the police and Ray looking for them.
Mamaw
Samantha Hughes, a teenaged Kentucky girl, never knew her father, who died in Vietnam before her birth. Samantha lives with her uncle Emmett, who also served in Vietnam. Emmett hangs around with Tom, Earl, and Pete, three other Vietnam vets who, like Emmett, all have problems of one kind or another that relate to their war experiences. Samantha becomes obsessed with finding out about her father.
Mrs. Mary Cox
Two escaped brothers track down and terrorize the family of the judge who sentenced them.
Rose
A divorcee decides to fight back after her hopes of gaining a promotion are dashed by her rejection of the advances of her boss, and it is only after he actually attacks her that her company and her union take notice.
Motel Owner
Two teenagers on the run with a quarter of a million dollars belonging to an illegal drug ring are pursued by a suave crime czar and, after they gain a celebrity of sorts, by the whole country, which wants to partake of their largesse in their coast-to-coast spending spree.
Mrs. Jewels
A television star goes home to Texas for her father's funeral and spends time with her mother for the first time in five years. Reminiscing about her childhood allows the daughter to work through lifelong resentments and to forgive her mother.
Pomeroy
Drama depicting the problems of a suburban housewife suffering from fits of depression and alcoholism, and her stay in a psychiatric center after a feeble suicide attempt.
Mrs. Mooney
Inspired by O. Henry's short story about a young bride and groom, each of whom foolishly--but quite lovingly--sacrifices a treasured possession to buy the perfect Christmas gift for their mate.
Woman on Train
A turn-of-the-century investigator named Kate Bliss goes to the wide-open spaces of the wild west to capture a gang of outlaws led by a charming "Robin Hood of the plains," leading a band of dispossessed ranchers against a stuffy English land baron who has cheated them out of their property.
Shopkeeper
Phillipe Charboneau is the illegitimate son of an English duke. When he travels from France to England to claim his inheritance, he incurs the wrath of his father's family and is forced to flee to America, where he becomes involved in the events leading to the American Revolution. (Episodes 1 and 2 of the Kent Chronicles miniseries.)
Reporter
An aspiring avant-garde composer rapes a fashion model. When she takes him to court, she's slut-shamed by the defense and the man is exonerated. But justice will be served.
Mrs. Charles
Tired of being short, a sixth-grader buys a magical book that enables him to "Think Big".
Mother
A young bachelor using a dating service picks a woman whose information card read "Anything goes." When he takes her out and finds out that she didn't live up to her description, he sues her for breach of contract.
Josephine
Three friends have two things in common: (1) they like to bet on the horses at the track, and (2) they invariably lose. One day they hit upon a scheme to steal one of the track's betting machines, so that they'd be able to print winning tickets and recoup the money they've lost over the years. However, things don't go exactly as planned.
Mrs. Birdsong
A searing commentary on the "win at all costs" mentality of American high school sports. David Lee Birdsong is the smalltown quarterback hoping to escape with a college scholarship and a pro career. David's father is the overbearing taskmaster vicariously living through his son. The third side of the triangle is Coach Marshall, a hypercritical and cruel man who sees David as the key to his future success. David's lockstep commitment to his father and coach is altered when he witnesses a teammate die after a grueling practice.
Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of gruesome murders in Las Vegas. It seems that each victim has been bitten in the neck and drained of all their blood. Kolchak is sure that it is a vampire. He's hot on the trail, but nobody believes him. His editor thinks he's nuts and the police think he's a hindrance in the investigation, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hand.
Mrs. Schultz
Two middle-aged women move to Hollywood, California after their sons are convicted of a notorious murder and open a dance school for children eager to tap their way to stardom.
Mrs. Proctor
Reverend Brooks leads the town in a contest to stop smoking for a month, But some tobacco executives don't want them to win, and try everything they can to make them smoke. If townspeople don't go nuts, from wanting a cigarette, or kill each other from irritation and frustration, they will win a huge prize.
Miss McClintock
The story, set in Kansas during the 1920's, covers less than a year in the life of a black teenager, and documents the veritable deluge of events which force him into sudden manhood. The family relationships and enmities, the fears, frustrations and ambitions of the black teenager in small-town America are explored with a strong statement about human values.
Neely O'Hara's Vocal Coach (uncredited)
In New York City, bright but naive New Englander Anne Welles becomes a secretary at a theatrical law firm, where she falls in love with attorney Lyon Burke. Anne befriends up-and-coming singer Neely O'Hara, whose dynamic talent threatens aging star Helen Lawson and beautiful but talentless actress Jennifer North. The women experience success and failure in love and work, leading to heartbreak, addiction and tragedy.
Relative (uncredited)
An aspiring young singer unexpectedly gets her big break by inventing a specialized clothes rack.
Mrs. Peter Ramsey
An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.
