Peggy Bryan
Peggy Bryan, born Margaret Eileen Bryan on 3 January 1916 in Birmingham, was an English film and stage actress. She is best known for playing George Formby’s wife in the 1941 comedy Turned Out Nice Again. She married cinematographer Wilkie Cooper and they had three sons.
She studied at Windermere College and began as an elocution teacher at Highclare College in Sutton Coldfield. Although her family had no theatre background, she gained amateur stage experience and chose acting as a career. She won a six‑month scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Drama.
Her first professional acting role came on 16 December 1937 as Puck in a Royal performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to aid King George’s Actors Pension Fund. In 1938 she played Puck at Regent’s Park and also Ariel in The Tempest. She soon appeared in West End productions, including April Clouds and Glorious Morning. She acted in The Springtime of Others, Q, and The Fanatics in 1939, and in five Shakespeare plays at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1940.
She suffered ill health in the last 20 years of her life and died in West Sussex on 12 January 1996, aged 80.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:46 (CET).