Lovely Madge Evans was the perennial nice girl in films of the 1930s. By then, she had been in front of the camera for many years, starting with Fairy Soap commercials at the age of two (she sat on a bar of soap holding a bunch of violets with the tag line reading have you a little fairy in your home?). Baby Madge also lent her name to a childrens hat company. In 1914, aged five, she was picked out by talent scouts to appear in the William Farnum movie The Sign of the Cross (1914), followed by The Seven Sisters (1915) with Marguerite Clark.By the end of the following year, she had amassed some twenty film credits, appearing with such noted contemporary stars as Pauline Frederick or Alice Brady. All of her early films were made on the East Coast, at studios in Ft.Lee, New Jersey. In 1917 (aged eight), Madge made her Broadway debut in Peter Ibbetson with John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore. She resumed her stage career in 1926 as an ingenue with Daisy Mayme and the following year appeared with Billie Burke in Noel Cowards costume drama The Marquise (1927).Her pleasing looks and personality soon attracted the attention of Hollywood and she was eventually signed by MGM in 1931. During the next decade, she appeared in several A-grade productions, notably as Lionel Barrymores daughter in MGMs Dinner at Eight (1933) and as the dependable Agnes Wickfield in one of the best-ever filmed versions of David Copperfield (1935). She co-starred opposite James Cagney in the gangster movie The Mayor of Hell (1933), Spencer Tracy in The Show-Off (1934) and listened to Bing Crosby crooning the title song in Pennies from Heaven (1936). Madge received praise for her performance as the star of Beauty for Sale (1933) and The New York Times review of January 13 1934 described her acting in Fugitive Lovers (1934) (opposite Robert Montgomery ) as spontaneous and captivating. Many of her typical American girl roles did not allow her to express aspects of the greater acting range she undoubtedly possessed. Too often she was cast as the nice girl - and those rarely make much of a dramatic impact. On the few occasions she was assigned the role of other woman, such as the Helen Hayes-starrer What Every Woman Knows (1934), audiences found her character difficult to believe and disassociate from her all-round wholesome image. When her contract with MGM expired in 1937, Madge wound down her film career and, following her 1939 marriage, concentrated on being the wife of celebrated playwright Sidney Kingsley. She last appeared on stage in one of his plays, The Patriots, in 1943.
Self
Film 1917
Film 1930
Ruth McAllan
Film 1935
Polaire
Film 1932
Paula Jordan
Film 1933
Ruth, as a Child
Film 1918
Glenda Wynant
Film 1935
Countess Vima Walden
Film 1931
Dorothy Griffith
Film 1933
Patty Barnes
Film 1918
Frances Clark
Film 1934
Georgia Gwynne, as a girl
Film 1916
June Marcher
Film 1933
Dorothy Mason
Film 1933
Ann Chester
Film 1936
Barbara 'Babs' Grant
Film 1931
Anne Wesson
Film 1938
Laura O'Neil
Film 1932
Ann Devlin
Film 1936
Janice
Film 1931
Dorothy Day
Film 1933
Nell O'Neill
Film 1937
Anne
Film 1931
Eileen Homer
Film 1918
Mary Blayne
Film 1932
Claire
Film 1933
Letty Lawson
Film 1933
Julie Armstrong
Film 1938
Toni Adams
Film 1936
Letty Morris
Film 1934
Joan
Film 1933
Maxine Bennett
Film 1935
Lady Sybil Tenterden
Film 1934
Lisbeth
Film 1923
Amy Fisher Piper
Film 1934
Miss 'Missy' Ruby
Film 1931
Shirley
Film 1932
'Dinner at Eight' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Film 1961
Rosalind Rockwell
Film 1935
Ruth Le Page - as a child
Film 1918
Deanie Consadine
Film 1918
Julie
Film 1934
Marjorie
Film 1917
Helen Sherwood
Film 1935
Dot
Film 1916
Bessie
Film 1916
Nannie Stevens
Film 1916
Sylvia
Film 1924
Betty
Film 1916
Lady Mary Fielding
Film 1934
Self (archive footage)
Film 1975
Helen
Film 1930
Jane Baxter
Film 1916
Clara
Film 1915
Child
Film 1919
Madge Lathrop
Film 1918
Editha
Film 1917
Mary Brian, age 8
Film 1917
Francine - Age 7
Film 1917
Little Emily
Film 1916
Constance
Film 1917
Jean as a Child
Film 1915
Tv 1948
Tv 1951
Sylvia
Tv 1950
Tv 1955
Tv 1950
Tv 1955
Elizabeth Bennet
Tv 1948
Ann
Tv 1948
Elinor Dashwood
Tv 1948