Margo was a Mexican-American actress and dancer. She appeared in many American film, stage, and television productions, including Lost Horizon, The Leopard Man, Viva Zapata!, and I'll Cry Tomorrow. She married actor Eddie Albert in 1945 and was later known as Margo Albert.
Early life and career
Margo was born into a musically talented family in Mexico City in 1917. As a child, she trained as a dancer with Eduardo Cansino, the father of Rita Hayworth. At the age of nine, she began dancing professionally with her uncle Xavier Cugat and his band in performances at Mexican nightclubs. Margo travelled to the United States as a child, living in New York City with her aunt, singer Carmen Castillo. While accompanying her uncle's band during a performance at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, Margo was noticed by producer and director Ben Hecht and screenwriter Charles MacArthur, who cast the 15-year-old performer as the lead in their film Crime Without Passion. Margo also played the character of Miriamne Esdras both on stage and in the 1936 film version of Winterset, which one critic called a "cinemagoer's must." Other notable roles in the 1930s include parts in the 1937 film Lost Horizon and Broadway productions of Maxwell Anderson's Masque of Kings and Sidney Kingsley's The World We Make.
Blacklisting
While Margo continued to act in films until the 1960s, her career was curtailed by the television blacklist that began in 1950, with the targeting of Gypsy Rose Lee, Jean Muir, Hazel Scott, and Ireene Wicker. Margo was known for her progressive political views, but she was not a member of the Communist Party. In 1950, her name and that of her husband were published in Red Channels, an anti-Communist pamphlet that purported to expose Communist influence within the entertainment industry. Red Channels labeled her a communist because of her support for the Hollywood Ten, her advocacy for peace, and her support for refugees. Albert's son spoke of his parents' blacklisting in an interview published in December 1972, crediting Albert's service during World War II with ultimately saving his career. Eddie Albert's film career survived the blacklist, but Margo was blacklisted by the major Hollywood studios.
Arts activism and engagement
In the years after the blacklist, Margo pursued her advocacy for arts and education. In 1970, along with Frank Lopez, a trade union activist, Margo founded Plaza de la Raza in East Los Angeles. A cultural center for arts and education, Plaza de la Raza remains in operation today, providing year-round programming in arts education. Her work with Plaza de la Raza included serving as the artistic director and as chairperson of the board. Albert's commitment to the arts extended beyond her work in East Los Angeles: she served as a steering committee member on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and was a member of the board of the National Council of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Margo was married twice. In 1937 she wed actor Francis Lederer, but they divorced in 1940. In December 1945, three years after she became a naturalized citizen of the United States, she married actor Eddie Albert. She and Albert had two children, a son and a daughter. The couple remained together for 40 years, until 1985, when she died from brain cancer at age 68 in their home in Pacific Palisades, California. Her gravesite is in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
