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Peggy Cass
Cass in 1973
Born	Mary Margaret Cass (1924-05-21)May 21, 1924
Died	March 8, 1999(1999-03-08) (aged 74) New York City, U.S.
Occupations	Actress comedian game show panelist announcer
Years active	1949–1997
Spouses	Carl Fisher ​ ​ (m. 1948; div. 1965)​ Eugene Feeney ​ ​ (m. 1979)​

Mary Margaret "Peggy"Cass (May 21, 1924 – March 8, 1999) was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.

As an actress, Cass is best known for originating the role of Agnes Gooch in the1956 stage and1958 film versions ofAuntie Mame, for which she won aTony Award and was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress. As a television personality, Cass is best known as one of the resident panelists onTo Tell the Truth from 1962 to 1968 when hosted byBud Collyer, 1969 to 1978 when hosted byGarry Moore and his successorsBill Cullen andJoe Garagiola, and 1990 when hosted byGordon Elliott.

Peggy Cass received acting training atHB Studio^[1] inNew York City and eventually landed the lead role of Billie Dawn in a traveling production ofBorn Yesterday.^{[citation needed]}

Cass made herBroadway debut in 1949 with the playTouch and Go. She portrayed Agnes Gooch inAuntie Mame on Broadway and in thefilm version (1958), a role for which she won the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress, and received anOscar nomination forBest Supporting Actress.^[2]

She was cast as "First Woman" in the nine-member ensemble of the 1960 Broadway revueA Thurber Carnival, adapted byJames Thurber from his own works.^[3] She played several characters throughout the performance, including: the mother in "The Wolf at the Door", the narrator of "The Little Girl and the Wolf", a nameless American tourist (who insistedMacbeth was a murder mystery), Miss Alma Winege in "File and Forget" (who wanted to ship to Mr. Thurber 36 copies ofGrandma Was a Nudist, which he did not order), Mrs. Preble in "Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife", Lou in "Take Her Up Tenderly" (who was helping to make old poetry more cheerful), andWalter Mitty's wife.^[3]

In 1961, she played Mitzi Stewart in the movieGidget Goes Hawaiian. In 1964, she starred as First Lady Martha Dinwiddie Butterfield in the mock-biographical novelFirst Lady: My Thirty Days in theWhite House. The book, written byAuntie Mame authorPatrick Dennis, included photographs byCris Alexander of Cass,Dody Goodman,Kaye Ballard and others who portrayed the novel's characters.^[4]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cass succeeded other actresses inDon't Drink the Water (as Marion Hollander) and inNeil Simon'sPlaza Suite, and played Mollie Malloy in two revival runs ofThe Front Page. She also appeared in the 1969 film comedyIf It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. In the 1980s, she returned to the stage in42nd Street and in the 1985 run ofThe Octette Bridge Club.^[2]

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One of Cass's earliest television roles was as Elinore Hathaway inThe Hathaways, a 26-episodesituation comedy that aired onABC from October 6, 1961, to March 30, 1962.^{[citation needed]} She starred withJack Weston as suburbanLos Angeles "parents" to a trio of performingchimpanzees. Weston portrayed Walter Hathaway, a real estate agent, and Cass was his zany wife, "mother" andbooking agent for theMarquis Chimps, named Candy, Charlie and Enoch.^{[citation needed]}

Cass filled in as announcer on Jack Paar's late night talk show that aired in the 1970s on ABC.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to her work with Paar, Cass's notable television work includes appearances on many game shows, on shows based mainly in New York City. She was a regular panelist onTo Tell the Truth from 1960 through its 1990 revival, appearing in most episodes in the 1960s and 1970s.^[5] She was also a panelist on the pilot of the 1960s version ofMatch Game.^{[citation needed]}

OnTo Tell the Truth and other series, she often displayed near-encyclopedic knowledge of various topics and would occasionally question the logic of some of the "facts" presented on the program. Cass appeared onWhat's My Line? in 1963, and made several appearances on the$10,000 & $20,000 Pyramid hosted byDick Clark from 1973 to 1980, as well as the nighttime version, which was titledThe $25,000 Pyramid (1974–1979), hosted by her friendBill Cullen. All three of these versions were taped in New York City. She also appeared in the late 1970s onShoot for the Stars hosted byGeoff Edwards, which was another game show that partnered contestants with celebrities, also filmed in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

In 1983, she appeared in the New Amsterdam Theatre Company's concert staging ofKurt Weill andOgden Nash'sOne Touch of Venus as Mrs. Kramer, withSusan Lucci as her daughter, as well asLee Roy Reams,Ron Raines, andPaige O'Hara as the titular Venus. In the spring of 1991, she participated in a concert staging ofCole Porter'sFifty Million Frenchmen at New York City'sFrench Institute Alliance Française as Mrs. Gladys Carroll, singing Porter's "The Queen of Terre Haute".^[6][7]

In 1987, Cass was featured in the earlyFox sitcomWomen in Prison. Aside from sitcoms, she played the role of H. Sweeney on theNBC afternoonsoap opera,The Doctors from 1978 to 1979.^{[citation needed]}

Cass appeared on thepilot episode ofMajor Dad on September 17, 1989.^[8] She portrayed Esther Nettleton, a civilian secretary working on theMarine base for Maj. John "Mac" MacGillis.

On March 8, 1999, Cass died of heart failure in New York City at age 74 at theMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.^[9]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPeggy Cass.

• Peggy Cass at theInternet Broadway Database
• Peggy Cass atIMDb
• ​A Thurber Carnival​ at theInternet Broadway Database

• 1924 births
• 1999 deaths
• American stage actresses
• American television actresses
• American women television personalities
• Tony Award winners
• American women comedians
• 20th-century American actresses
• 20th-century American women singers
• 20th-century American comedians

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