Peggy Hyland

Pretty brunette Peggy Hyland (1884-1973) was an English film actress and director, who starred in more than 45 British and American silent films. She remained active in films until 1925.


British postcard in the Lilywhite Photographic series. Photo: William Fox.


British postcard in the Lilywhite Photographic series. Photo: William Fox.


British postcard in the Lilywhite Photographic series. Photo: William Fox.

The Love of an Actress

Peggy Hyland was born Gladys Lucy Hutchinson in Harborne a suburb of Birmingham, in 1884. She was educated in Britain and at convents in Europe. The first convent she attended was Seroule in Verviers, on the frontier of Belgium. In 1910, she began to act on stage, according to Wikipedia after consulting a seer who foretold her great success. She toured with legendary stage actor Cyril Maude in the play 'The Yellow Jacket'.

Hyland began her screen career in 1912. Women and British Cinema (WSBC) mentions her first film, the Clarendon production The Love of an Actress (Wilfred Noy, 1914). However, according to Paul Rothwell-Smith at IMDb, she made her film debut for the Neptune Film Co. in In the Rank (Percy Nash, 1914) starring Gregory Scott. That year, she also married her first husband, Owen Grant Evan-Thomas. The next year, she starred for G.B. Samuelson Productions in the drama John Halifax, Gentleman (George Pearson, 1915). She played Ursula March opposite Fred Paul in the title role. For Samuelson, she also appeared in Infelice (L.C. MacBean, Fred Paul, 1915) with Fred Paul and Queenie Thomas.

In the following year, she reunited with George Pearson for the romance Sally Bishop (George Pearson, 1916) starring Marjorie Villis and Aurelio (or Aurele) Sidney. Between 1916 and 1920 she was based in America working for Fox, Vitagraph and Famous Players. For Vitagraph, she co-starred with E.H. Sothern in The Chattel (Fred Thomson, 1916) and appeared as Olette in The Sixteenth Wife (Charles Brabin, 1917). Opposite Antonio Moreno, she played in the drama Her Right to Live (Paul Scardon, 1917) as the head of a family of orphaned children destined for the poorhouse.

The Moving Picture World in 1917: “In selecting a cast for Her Right to Live, the five-reel Vitagraph Blue Ribbon Feature written by Paul West, the man in charge has dared to give Peggy Hyland the part of a heroine of the most pronounced soubrette type. All the stage tricks that tradition has bequeathed to the simple but roguish village maiden, are to be expected in the character of Polly Biggs. The star of Her Right to Live discards them entirely and makes the orphan girl a natural human being with a bright sunny nature, and an innocence that is not more wise than nice.”

In the Fox Film drama Debt of Honour (O.A.C. Lund, 1918), Hyland sacrifices her good name to shield the reputation of a U.S. Senator who has taken her into his home as an orphan. Perhaps her best-known film was the Fox production The Merry-Go-Round (Edmund Lawrence, 1919) in which she played both a Gypsy and heroin Susie Alice Pomeroy opposite Jack Mulhall. Newspapers of the era described her double role in this romance as one of the actress' best performances. The crime film Black Shadows (Howard M. Mitchell, 1920) was another Fox Film feature in which Peggy portrayed Marjorie Langdon, a victim of hypnotism who begins to have compulsions to steal.


British postcard. Photo: Fox.


British postcard in Valentine's Real Photograph series, no. 8251. Photo: William Fox.

Producer and director

Peggy Hyland's film credits number more than forty-five, in both British and American productions. Back in England, Australian Fred Leroy Granville directed her for G.B. Samuelson Productions in films like the romances The Honeypot (1920) with Lillian Hall-Davis and the sequel Love Maggy (1921) with James Lindsay.

She also starred in the comedy Mr. Pim Passes By (Albert Ward, 1921) with Henry Kendall. It was based on the 1919 play of the same title by A.A. Milne. In 1922 Hyland told in Kinematograph Weekly that a woman was ‘as capable a director as a man’ and hoped to prove the truth of this assertion with a series of two-reel comedies she was to direct.

Hyland wrote, produced, directed and starred in With Father's Help (Peggy Hyland, 1922) and she directed and starred in The Haunted Pearls (Peggy Hyland, 1924), according to Paul Rothwell-Smith at IMDb.

Hyland married Universal film producer Fred LeRoy Granville in Marylebone in London in March 1923. In 1923, she was back in the U.S. to star in the Arabian adventure Shifting Sands (Fred Leroy Granville, 1923).

Peggy Hyland sailed in 1925 to Liverpool. Her final film was the British adventure film Forbidden Cargoes (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1926). Her second marriage also ended in a divorce and later she lived in London. She died in 1973 in Tonbridge in Kent and was cremated there. She was 88.


British postcard in the Cinema Stars series by Lilywhite Ltd., no. C.M.-160. Photo: Samuelson Films.


British postcard in the 'Pictures' Portrait Gallery by Pictures Ltd., London, no. 24. Photo: Fox Film.


British postcard in the 'Pictures' Portrait Gallery by Pictures Ltd., London, no. 11/215.

Sources: Paul Rothwell-Smith (IMDb), Women and British Cinema, Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 4 November 2024.