Marguerite Leslie (born Marguerite Hedman, April 3, 1884 – 1958) was a Swedish-born English actress.
Early life Marguerite Hedman was born in Östersund, Jämtland County, Sweden, the daughter of Johan Hedman and Ingrid Kempe. Her sister Martha Hedman also worked as an actress,"Sisters of the Stage" Theatre Magazine (July 1914): 23."Turning the Tables on Miss Leslie" Chicago Daily Tribune (May 4, 1913): B2. and later as a writer. The sisters were educated in Sweden, Finland, and London.Ada Patterson, "'London's Loveliest Leading Lady' Goes into 'The Movies'" Green Book Magazine (February 1916): 321-326.
Career
Marguerite Hedman adopted the name "Marguerite Leslie" as an actress in London, where she appeared in Nero (1906), The Beauty of Bath (1906–1907), My Darling (1907), Concerning a Countess (1907),"Marguerite Leslie" The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (November 9, 1907): 1. A Scotch Marriage (1907–1908), Penelope (1909),J. P. Wearing, The London Stage, 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013): various. Preserving Mr. Panmure (1911), The Marionettes (1911–1912), At the Barn (1912), and The Vision of Delight (1912).J. P. Wearing, The London Stage, 1910-1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013): various.
Her Broadway credits included The Virginian (1904), Penelope (1909–1910), The Secret (1913–1914), Outcast (1914–1915), and The Basker (1916). In Los Angeles she had roles in The Gamblers (1912)"New Principals for the Belasco; Marguerite Leslie and Orrin Johnson to Appear" Los Angeles Times (August 31, 1912): II5. and The Money Moon (1912)."Marguerite Leslie to Have Her Chance" Los Angeles Herald (October 4, 1912): 18. via California Digital Newspaper Collection She also appeared in four silent films, Jim the Penman (1915, now lost), The Question (1916), The Mite of Love (1919, a short), and The Chosen Path (1919).Hans J. Wollstein, Strangers in Hollywood: The History of Scandinavian Actors in American Films from 1910 to World War II (Scarecrow Press 1994): 210-211.
She was tall,Eileen O'Connor, "What Marguerite Leslie Learned in America" Theatre Magazine (March 1916): 138. and considered a beauty as a young actress, a "Burne-Jones girl in an English garden-party hat... quite the pinkest and whitest, fresh daisiest thing we have had for a long while," mused one Los Angeles writer.Grace Kingsley, "Fair Picture is Miss Leslie; New Burbank Star Fresh from Dear Old England" Los Angeles Times (August 14, 1912): III4. During World War I she worked raising funds for the Red Cross.Hanna Astrup Larsen, "Norse Legions of Democracy" The American-Scandinavian Review (July–August 1918): 196.
References
External links
Marguerite Leslie's listing on IBDB. The National Portrait Gallery has five postcard portraits of Marguerite Leslie by photographer Rita Martin, all from about 1908. Marguerite Leslie in her Marmon Nordyke motorcar (flickr)