Margia Dean R.I.P.

Margia Dean, who appeared in the movies Superman and the Mole Men (1951) and The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), died on June 23 2023 at the age of 101.

Margia Dean was born Marguerite Louise Skliris on April 7 1922 in Chicago. Her family moved to California when she was young and she she grew up in San Francisco. As a child she acted on stage. She won both the Miss San Francisco and Miss California pageants and competed in the Miss America pageant in 1939. She graduated from Galileo High School and afterwards acted at the Biltmore Theatre in Los Angeles.

Margia Dean made her film debut in a bit part in Casanova in Burlesque (1944). In the late Forties she appeared in the movies Call of the South Seas (1944), Take It Big (1944), The Desert Hawk (1944), Delinquent Daughters (1944), Minstrel Man (1944), Earl Carroll Vanities (1945), The Power of the Whistler (1945), The Crime Doctor's Warning (1945), Who's Guilty? (1945), Living in a Big Way (1947), Shep Comes Home (1948), I Shot Jesse James (1949), Rimfire (1949), Grand Canyon (1949), Ringside (1949), Treasure of Monte Cristo (1949), Tough Assignment (1949), Red Desert (1949), The Baron of Arizona (1950), Western Pacific Agent (1950), Motor Patrol (1950), Hi-Jacked (1950), The Return of Jesse James (1950), and Bandit Queen (1950). She made her television debut in a recurring role on the TV show Dick Tracy.

In the Fifties she appeared in the movies Fingerprints Don't Lie (1951), Mask of the Dragon (1951), Tales of Robin Hood (1951), Pier 23 (1951), Kentucky Jubilee (1951), Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951), Savage Drums (1951), Take Care of My Little Girl (1951), Leave It to the Marines (1951), Sky High (1951), F.B.I Girl (1951), Superman and the Mole Men (1951), Loan Shark (1952), Mr. Walkie Talkie (1952), Mesa of Lost Women (1953), Sins of Jezebel (1953), Fangs of the Wild (1954), The Lonesome Trail (1955), The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Last of the Desperadoes (1955), The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), Frontier Gambler (1956), Stagecoach to Fury (1956), Badlands of Montana (1957), Ambush at Cimarron Pass (1958), Villa!! (1958), and The Secret of the Purple Reef (1960). She guest starred on the shows Racket Squad, Adventures of Superman, The Revlon Mirror Theatre, The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse, The Joe Palooka Story, and I Spy (1955).

In the Sixties she appeared in the movies The Big Show (1961), 7 Women from Hell (1961), and Moro Witch Doctor (1964).

Margia Dean retired from acting in the Sixties. She later served as a vice-president at a real estate/construction firm. She also operated a dress shop in Brentwood and a coffee shop in Beverly Hills.

Margia Dean was a talented actress who really deserved better roles than she often got. She did very well in The Quatermass Xperiment, playing the wife of an ill-fated astronaut who eventually loses her mind. In The Big Show she played a circus aerialist abandoned by her sweetheart when he decides to marry someone else. She was a gifted singer and among her most notable careers was that of a saloon singer in I Shot Jesse James. She also sang in Villa!! and Frontier Gambler. Many of Margia Dean's roles during her career were small, but she was always a pleasure to see on screen.