Marguerite Chapman

Was discovered while working as a telephone operator in White Plains, New York in 1938. Similarly, 39 years later in 1977, her last acting role was that of an operator in Barnaby Jones: Daughter of Evil (1977).

Marguerite Chapman, a small-town secretary and tomboy nicknamed "Slugger", became a model only after friends insisted "you oughta be in pictures", and she went on to act in more than 30 movies. Never a Hollywood wannabe, Chapman grew up in Chatham, New York, with four brothers. She started working as a typist and switchboard operator in White Plains, New York. Praised repeatedly for her beauty, she became a John Powers model in New York City. After she had appeared on the covers of enough magazines, studios beckoned her to Los Angeles. From 1940 to 1943 she appeared in 18 movies, ranging from Charles Chaplin comedies to armed services booster films as a member of the Warner Bros. singing and dancing Navy Blues Sextet.

Chapman was cast as the leading lady in Destroyer (1943) with Edward G. Robinson and Glenn Ford. During World War II she entertained troops, kissed purchasers of large war bonds and appeared in a string of war-themed pictures.

By the 1950s, however, she had slipped into supporting roles, notably as the secretary in The Seven Year Itch (1955) with Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. As her film career waned, she made a few appearances on television, and appeared occasionally in small theaters.

She was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in 1958, after rear-ending another car on Sunset Boulevard and subsequently refusing to take a field sobriety test.

Her last film, The Amazing Transparent Man (1960), was a low-budget sci-fi quickie shot by cult director Edgar G.

Was asked to try out for the role of the elder Rose Dawson Calvert in Titanic (1997) but she was too ill and the role went to Gloria Stuart.