Margaret Lawrence (actress)

{{Short description|American actress (1889–1929)}}

{{distinguish|Margaret Laurence (actress)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2018}}

{{infobox person

| name =

| image= Margaret Lawrence in Wedding Bells (cropped).jpg

| imagesize =

| caption =Lawrence, c. 1920

| birth_name =Margaret Whittaker Lawrence

| birth_date = {{birth date|1889|08|02}}

| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1929|06|09|1889|08|02}}

| death_place = New York City, U.S.

| restingplace = Ivy Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia

| occupation = Actress

| yearsactive =1910–1929

| spouse = Orson D. Munn
Wallace Eddinger

| children = 2

}}

Margaret Whittaker Lawrence (August 2, 1889 – June 9, 1929) was an American stage actress known for her performances on Broadway and other venues.

Born in Philadelphia to Mr and Mrs. George Lawrence, Margaret Lawrence began her career in Chicago in 1910, appeared in New York in Over Night (1911) and starred in such Broadway plays as Wedding Bells (1919), Lawful Larceny (1922) and Secrets (1922),{{cite book|editor-first=John|editor-last=Parker|title=Who's Who in the Theatre|publisher=Small Maynard & Company|location=Boston|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qyk_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA480|year=1922|page=480}} the latter of which she was also costume designer.{{cite book |last1=Owen |first1=Bobbi |title=The Broadway Design Roster: Designers and Their Credits |date=2003 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport |isbn=9780313319150 |page=269 |url=https://archive.org/details/broadwaydesignro0000owen/page/266/mode/2up}} She was socially prominent, serving on the advisory boards of several charitable organizations. She collected old plays, reportedly one of the most complete collections of its kind in New York City.{{cite news|title=Miss Lawrence has hobby for old plays|work=The Washington Times|date=December 17, 1922| page=7 D|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1922-12-17/ed-1/seq-51/}}

In 1911 she married Orson D. Munn, publisher of Scientific American, with whom she had two daughters. They divorced in 1922, and in 1924 she married actor Wallace Eddinger. Eddinger died in 1929, and on June 9 of that year, Margaret was shot dead by actor Louis Bennison in a murder-suicide.{{cite news|first=Gene|last=Coughlin|title=Margaret Lawrence's Fallen Star|work= The Milwaukee Sentinel|date= January 2, 1949 |pages=6–7|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ofkZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KQ4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2903%2C2062925}}{{cite news|title=Noted Stage Stars in Murder-Suicide|work= Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=June 10, 1929|page=1|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=koRRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wmgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2316%2C6559534}} [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=koRRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wmgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3651%2C6522007 cont., p. 5]{{cite book|first=David K.|last= Frasier|title=Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=97WJCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA33|date=2005|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-2333-0|page=33}}{{cite news|title=Margaret Lawrence slain by Louis Bennison, actor, who ends life in her home|work=The New York Times|date=June 10, 1929|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B07E0D6163BE533A25753C1A9609C946895D6CF&legacy=true}}

She was buried in Philadelphia's Ivy Hill Cemetery.{{cite book|first=Scott|last= Wilson|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons|edition= 3rd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-DgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA429|date=2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-7992-4|page=429}}