A vastly talented musical performer Peggy Ryan found stardom dancing alongside partner Donald OConnor as Universals answer to Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney Paired up in many a lowbudget WWIIera musical she was best known for her dancing feet but she was no slouch in the singing department and her buoyant personality added plenty of zest to the escapist fare she appeared in Christened Margaret ORene Ryan Peggy was as they say born in a trunk in 1924 to a pair of vaudeville dancers The Merry Dancing Ryans and by age two the pintsized scenestealer was already selling her heart out on stage alongside her parents No glamor girl Peggy had a very plaintive face prominent nose and gangly figure similar to a Virginia Weidler so she was wise enough to play it up for laughs Discovered by George Murphy the young girl earned a part in Universals enjoyable tune fest Top of the Town1937 where the little Irish charmer managed to steal a dance alongside Murphy Other movies beckoned sometimes in teary dramas such as The Women Men Marry 1937 and The Grapes of Wrath 1940 With the movie Whats Cookin 1942 she teamed with OConnor for the first time The two were a sensation and sparked many musical programmers with their clowning mugging intricate dance steps and indefatigable style The jitterbugging twosome romped through Private Buckaroo 1942 Give Out Sisters1942 Get Hep to Love 1942 Top Man 1943 The Merry Monahans 1944 Chip Off the Old Block 1944 and Bowery to Broadway 1944 during their peak During this period she married James Cross and had a son James Michael Cross who later died in a 1987 car accident Peggy began to freelance in postwar years and found employment with other studios She was paired up with dancer Ray McDonald for the films Shamrock Hill 1949 and All Ashore 1953 and began seeing him off screen as well They eventually married had a child named Kerry and toured together across the US in a nightclub act for a few years until their marriage folded She decided to retire from films following her third marriage to Hawaiian announceremceecolumnist Eddie Sherman She choreographed book shows here and there The Music Man Funny Girl but basically settled down in Hawaii In later years she came out of semiretirement to appear in a small recurring part as the Governor of Hawaiis secretary Millie on TVs popular Hawaii FiveO 1968 in 1968 She remained a sporadic presence throughout the run of the show After teaching tap dancing for decades on the sly Peggy moved to Las Vegas with her family A trouper to the end she formed a group of middleaged dancers called The TNTs and performed in and about town In 2003 she suffered her first ministroke dying a year later in what was reported to be complications from multiple strokes on October 30 2004
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