Margalo Gillmore, 89, Stage, Film, TV Actress

Margalo Gillmore, whose career embraced such stage classics as “Life With Father,” “Little Women” and “The Barretts of Wimpole Street,” is dead of cancer.

Miss Gillmore, whose father was one of the founders of Actors Equity Assn., was 89 and died Monday at her New York City home.

Her career began in 1917 in the long-forgotten play “Scrap of Paper,” and ended in 1961 when she retired after appearing on Broadway in “Sail Away.”

In the interim she made frequent appearances in such Theater Guild productions as “Little Eyolf,” “Juarez and Maximilian” and “Silver Cord.”

She was in the original company of “The Women” (as Mary Haines), which ran on Broadway from 1939 to 1941, and replaced Lillian Gish in 1942 in the touring company of “Life With Father.”

She appeared on Broadway and throughout the world in “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” as both Arabel and Henrietta Moulton-Barrett.

She made her film debut in 1950 in “Perfect Strangers.” Her other movie appearances included “The Happy Years,” “Behave Yourself,” “High Society” and “Gaby.”

She also appeared on several early television dramatic anthologies.

She was married to actor-director Robert Ross, who died in 1954, the same year they had appeared together in “Kind Sir.”

Her final stage credits, both in New York and on tour, included “Peter Pan,” “The Bad Seed” and “The Diary of Anne Frank.”