Margaret Kerry, 1929 – 2026

Actress Margaret Kerry, 97, died on June 11. Kerry—a trained dancer—modeled for Disney animators creating Tinker Bell for the 1953’s Peter Pan. She started her career as a bit player in such 1930s films as Teacher’s Beau, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; by the 1940s she was doubling for Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet. She also played small roles in If You Knew Susie, Canon City, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Lone Ranger, and did voice-overs for the terrifying kid’s cartoon Clutch Cargo (nightmare fuel in my youth!). Her biggest role came as daughter Sharon in the 1950s sitcom The Ruggles [sic—it should have been “The Ruggleses”—does no one know how to pluralize?). Kerry recalled of posing as Tinker Bell, “There was no one for me to react to. I had to imagine almost everything. There was an occasional prop like huge scissors or a wire-frame keyhole or something. Most of the time it was just me pretending to be looking up from under something or walking around.”