Peggy Dow

About Peggy Dow

Who is it?: Actress
Birth Day: March 18, 1928
Birth Place:  Columbia, Mississippi, United States
Birth Sign: Aries
Occupation: Film actress
Years active: 1949-1951
Spouse(s): Walter Helmerich III (1951-2012; his death)
Children: 5

Peggy Dow Net Worth

Peggy Dow was born on March 18, 1928 in  Columbia, Mississippi, United States, is Actress. This Universal-International player had the beauty, brains and talent to go the distance, only to surprise herself by choosing marriage and family over her career. Now remembered more for her charitable work than her Hollywood roles, pretty and wholesome blonde Peggy Dow was christened Peggy Josephine Varnadow on March 18, 1928, in Columbia, Mississippi. She has clarified that Peggy is not a derivative of Margaret or any other forename. Her father, a businessman, moved about quite a bit but the family subsequently settled in Louisiana, where she attended college (both Louisiana State and Northwestern State University), majoring in drama and appearing in several college plays.After brief modeling and radio experience, she was spotted by a talent agent and cast in a TV show in February 1949. Shortly after that exposure, Universal offered her a seven-year contract. Bypassing the starlet bit-part route, she made an auspicious film debut co-starring with Scott Brady in the thriller Undertow (1949), in which she played a vacationing schoolteacher who accidentally gets involved in a murder. Her second film (which she actually made first but was released later), Woman in Hiding (1950), was also a crime thriller, co-starring Ida Lupino and Stephen McNally. Showing clearly that she was up to the task of playing love interests with depth and range, Peggy's star began to ascend with these two modest efforts. She hit her peak when she co-starred as the lovely nurse in the classic James Stewart farce Harvey (1950) and appeared opposite Arthur Kennedy in the touching war drama Bright Victory (1951), the story of a soldier who is blinded and must learn to readjust to civilian life. These two different roles showed Hollywood that Peggy could handle comedy and drama with equal finesse.Following a couple of more "B" pictures, Peggy suddenly retired after only three years in the business to marry Walter Helmerich in 1951. A non-professional whose career was in oil drilling, Helmerich and Peggy relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they raised five sons in the process.
Peggy Dow is a member of Actress

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Peggy Dow images

Biography/Timeline

1948

Born in Columbia, Mississippi, at age 4 she moved with her family to Covington, Louisiana. She attended high school and junior college at Gulf Park College in Gulfport, Mississippi (now the Gulf Park campus of the University of Southern Mississippi), then finished college at Northwestern University in Illinois, appearing in college plays and receiving her degree from Northwestern's School of Speech in 1948.

1949

After brief modeling and radio experience, Dow was spotted by a talent agent and cast in a television show in February 1949. Shortly after that exposure, Universal offered her a seven-year contract. Dow made nine films, most notably as Nurse Kelly in Harvey (1950), starring James Stewart, and co-starring with Best Actor Oscar nominee Arthur Kennedy in Bright Victory (1951). After being featured in several crime dramas, Dow had starring roles in two 1951 family films, Reunion in Reno and You Never Can Tell.

1951

She retired after three years in the Business to marry Walter Helmerich III, an oil driller from Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1951. He became President of his family's Business, Helmerich & Payne. They were married for 60 years, until his death in 2012. The couple had five sons. She became an active supporter of libraries and other charitable activities.

1985

The Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, an award given annually since 1985 to a distinguished author by the Tulsa Library Trust, is named in her honor, as is the drama school at the University of Oklahoma and the auditorium at Northwestern's Annie May Swift Hall.