Margaret Hayes

• Name — Margaret Hayes • Birth Name — Florette Regina Ottenheimer • Born — 5 December 1913 • Birthplace — Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. • Died — 26 January 1977 • Place of death — Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1939–1964 • Education — Johns Hopkins University • Spouse — * Charles DeBuskey (m. married 1937; div. divorced 1939) • Children — 3

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Hayes was one of four children born to Clara Bussey and Jacob Lewis "Jack" Ottenheimer, erstwhile songwriter, joke-book writer, radio performer turned real estate broker, who had, at one time, reportedly provided much of the material for the famous magician, Howard Thurston. While a student at Forest Park High School, she joined the Emerson Cook Stock Company to gain more acting experience. She entered Johns Hopkins University to become a nurse, but stuck to her dramatic ambitions. At the school, she joined "The Barnstormers", a theatrical organization, becoming the first female member of that group.

Using the name "Dana Dale" (reportedly at the suggestion of columnist Walter Winchell), Hayes found work as a model, "featured in the best cigarette, auto, and fashion advertisements". Her screen test for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind was unsuccessful, but she received a movie contract anyway. Publicists at her studio recommended "Dana Edwards" as a better name for movies, so she began using it. Eventually, she changed to Margaret Hayes for public purposes, and was called Maggie by her friends.

After marrying Herbert Bayard Swope in 1947, Hayes temporarily retired from acting and turned to journalism, eventually becoming assistant fashion editor for Life.

In her later years, Hayes lived in Palm Beach, Florida, and was the host of a daily radio talk show on WPBR.

Hayes had her first child, a daughter Nan (born 1937), from her brief first marriage to Charles DeBuskey. The couple divorced in 1939, and Hayes subsequently married actor Leif Erickson on June 12, 1942, eloping with him to Minden, Nevada. They separated 28 days later, and Hayes received a divorce on October 2, 1942. In 1947 she married a third time, to producer Herbert B. Swope, Jr. (son of three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting, journalist Herbert Swope), with whom she had a daughter, actress Tracy Brooks Swope, and a son, Herbert Swope III. They divorced in 1973.

On January 26, 1977, aged 63, Hayes died of cancer in Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida.

• The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940) as Governor's Secretary • Ladies Must Live (1940) as Chorus Girl • Money and the Woman (1940) as Depositor (uncredited) • City for Conquest (1940) as Sally, Irene's Friend (uncredited) • Tugboat Annie Sails Again (1940) as Rosie • In Old Colorado (1941) as Myra Woods • Henry Aldrich for President (1941) as Miss Patterson (uncredited) • New York Town (1941) as Lola Martin (uncredited) • Skylark (1941) as Blake's Receptionist (uncredited) • The Night of January 16th (1941) as Nancy Wakefield • Sullivan's Travels (1941) as Secretary • Louisiana Purchase (1941) as Louisiana Belle • The Lady Has Plans (1942) as Rita Lenox • Saboteur (1942) as Henry's Wife in Movie (uncredited) • Take a Letter, Darling (1942) as Sally French • The Glass Key (1942) as Eloise Matthews • Scattergood Survives a Murder (1943) as Gail Barclay • Stand By All Networks (1942) as Lela Cramer • One Dangerous Night (1943) as Patricia Blake Shannon • They Got Me Covered (1943) as Lucille • Blackboard Jungle (1955) as Lois Judby Hammond • Violent Saturday (1955) as Mrs. Emily Fairchild • The Bottom of the Bottle (1956) as Lil Breckinridge • From the Desk of Margaret Tyding (1956) • Omar Khayyam (1957) as Queen Zarada • Damn Citizen (1958) as Dorothy Grevemberg • The Case Against Brooklyn (1958) as Lil Polombo née Alexander • Girl in the Woods (1958) as Bell Cory • Fräulein (1958) as Lt. Berdie Dubbin • Good Day for a Hanging (1959) as Ruth Granger • The Beat Generation (1959) as Joyce Greenfield • Girls Town (1959) as Mother Veronica • 13 West Street (1962) as Mrs. Madeleine Landry • House of Women (1962) as Zoe Stoughton Flipper 1965 S1 Episodes 12 & 13 (Lady and the Dolphin) Congresswomen Helen Browning.

• Year1960 — Title Perry Mason "The Case of the Clumsey Clown" S4E17 — Role Mrs. Gilbert — Notes • 1957 — Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre — Rose — S2:E01 "The Deserters" • 1957 — Perry Mason — Sybil Granger — S1E03 "The Case of the Nervous Accomplice" • 1961 — Rawhide — Mrs. North — S3:E29 "Incident of the Night on the Town" • 1961 — Bonanza — Lady Linda Chadwick — S3E09 "The Countess" • 1960 — Perry Mason — Vivaca Bell — S3:E24 "The Case of the Ominous Outcast" • 1963 — Perry Mason — Leslie Rankin — S7:E6 "The Case of the Reluctant Model"