Madeleine Carroll
- After her sister Marguerite was killed in a London bombing raid, Madeleine halted her acting career and worked in field hospitals as a Red Cross nurse. She earned the Legion d’Honneur for bravery in France.
- Following her sister’s death, Madeleine said, “I have a debt to pay (Adolf Hitler) and I’m going to pay it with every ounce of my strength . . . I can’t be a soldier, but there are other ways I can pay Hitler back.” LOVE her!
- Graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Birmingham University when she was only 20 years old.
- Her father wanted her to be a teacher, but she followed her heart and became an actress.
- Madeleine was the first of Alfred Hitchcock’s “ice-cool blondes.”
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She was the highest-paid Hollywood actress of her time.
- Became a U.S. citizen in 1943.
- One of the things I love most about this beautiful actress is the fact that she was as beautiful inside as outside. She was notoriously committed to charitable works for children who were orphaned or injured as the result of the Second World War.
- Madeleine spent the last 21 years of her life enjoying retirement in Paris and in the South of Spain.
- She died only seven days after her The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) co-star Mary Astor.