Mary Duncan

Mary Duncan (born Mary Annie Dungan, August 13, 1895 – May 9, 1993) was an American stage and silent film actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in F.W. Murnau's City Girl (1930) and Morning Glory (1933).

Biography

Duncan was born Mary Annie Dungan in Northumberland County, Virginia, the sixth of eight children born to Capt. William Dungan and his wife, Ada Thaddeus Douglass. She attended Cornell University before settling on acting as a career. She began her career as a child actress playing on the Broadway stage from 1910. In 1926 she played "Poppy" in the smash hit and controversial play The Shanghai Gesture, in which Florence Reed played her mother (known as "Mother Goddam"). Reed's character kills her daughter in a startling end to the play. This play was turned into a very sanitized film in 1941 with Gene Tierney. Duncan also starred in the 1930 film City Girl by director F.W. Murnau. Duncan's last film appearance was in the 1933 film Morning Glory, which starred Katharine Hepburn.