Wood, Peggy

(1892-1978)

   Born in Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Wood, known on stage as Peggy, began her career in operetta, singing in the chorus of Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta (1910). Her beauty and poise, coupled with a lilting soprano, led to her casting in Sigmund Romberg's Maytime (1917), in which she introduced "Will You Remember?" She moved to legitimate drama, beginning with the classics, playing Portia in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in 1928. She enjoyed notable successes in Champagne, Sec* (1933), Old Acquaintance* (1940), and Blithe Spirit (1941). Wood occasionally appeared in motion pictures, notably as the Abbess in the blockbuster screen version of The Sound of Music (1965), and she played Mama in the long-running television* series based on John Van Druten's* play I Remember Mama,* in the 1950s.