Peggy Ryan

American entertainer Peggy Ryan came from a large vaudevillian family, billed as the Merry Dancing Ryans; she was onstage from infancy and in films from age 6 (The Wedding of Jack and Jill [1930]). Peggy's peak movie years were 1941-1945, during which she was costarred in several lightweight musicals with fellow Universal contractee Donald O'Connor. Ryan and O'Connor usually played teenaged sweethearts who found themselves hoofing away at the drop of an orchestra leader's baton (though O'Connor was larger and more mature looking, Ryan was in fact the older of the two). So locked in was Ms. Ryan with her costar that, while she was performing a musical number with Lou Costello in Here Come the Co-Eds (1945), Costello airily remarked "I feel just like Donald O'Connor." Ryan and O'Connor were also a popular fixture of USO tours, at least until O'Connor himself was put into uniform. Her film career faltered as she grew older, though Ryan remained in musicals until 1953's All Ashore, in which she appeared opposite Mickey Rooney. After running her own dance school, Peggy Ryan retired to Hawaii, returning before the cameras occasionally in the Honolulu-filmed TV series Hawaii 5-O.