Marcy McGuire obit

 Singer and Actress Marcy McGuire Has died

She was not on the list.

Small, red-haired, snub-nosed, energetic, happy-looking American singer and dancer - a vis-a-vis for Frank Sinatra in one of his first films; despite (or perhaps because of) being compared to Judy Garland, she never fulfilled her early promise in movies, and remained a busy singer in nightclubs, where she had started her career as a teenager: Seven Days' Leave (1942), Higher and Higher (1943), Around the World (1943), Career Girl (1944), Seven Days Ashore (1944), Sing Your Way Home (1945), Melody Maker (1946), It Happened in Brooklyn (1947), You Gotta Stay Happy (1948), Jumping Jacks (1952) and Summer Magic (1962), her last. Born Marilyn McGuire, she was married to character actor Wally Cassell for 67 years until his death in 2015.

McGuire was born on February 22, 1926, to James Joseph McGuire, a film projectionist and Annona (née Crowley) McGuire. Her parents divorced in the early 1930s, while McGuire was still a child.

McGuire signed a contract with RKO Pictures and was subsequently cast in her first film at the age of sixteen, Seven Days' Leave (1942), which starred Lucille Ball. Her other films include Higher and Higher (1944, starring Frank Sinatra), Career Girl (1944), Seven Days Ashore (1944), It Happened in Brooklyn (1947) and You Gotta Stay Happy (1948). Her penultimate film before retiring from Hollywood was Jumping Jacks (1952), with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. She also had a minor uncredited role in Disney's Summer Magic (1963) as a young maid named Ellen by putting on an Irish accent before her permanent retirement.

 

McGuire was married to actor Wally Cassell from 1947 until his death in 2015. The couple had two children. She died in Palm Desert, California on August 7, 2021, at the age of 95. News of her death was only made public in August 2022, by film historians Austin and Howard Mutti-Mewse

 

Filmography

 

Year     Title            Role

1942    Seven Days' Leave            Mickey Havalok-Allen

1943    Around the World            Herself

Higher and Higher  Mickey

1944    Career Girl       Louise

Seven Days Ashore Dot Diamond

1945    Sing Your Way Home   Bridget Forrester

1946    Ding Dong Williams            Miss Angela Jones

1947    It Happened in Brooklyn            Rae Jakobi

1948    You Gotta Stay Happy  Georgia Goodrich

1952            Jumping Jacks Julia Loring

1963            Summer Magic            Ellen