Mary Margaret Cass, born May 21, 1924, in Boston, Massachusetts, had a varied and adventurous early life.
After three years at the Cambridge Latin School drama club, where she didn't have a single speaking part, she moved to New York. There, she worked as a secretary, telephone operator, advertising solicitor, and model.
She joined a USO troupe that took her to Australia for seven months, but unfortunately, the U.S. troops had moved on before she could appear in any shows. As understudy, she took on Jan Sterling's part in a national tour of "Born Yesterday."
In 1949, she landed her own role in the Broadway musical "Touch and Go." The mid-1950s brought her the defining role of Agnes Gooch in "Auntie Mame" (1958),earning her a Tony and an Oscar nomination, respectively, for her stage and screen performances.
From then on, she became best known for her regular television quiz show appearances: "Keep Talking" (1958),"Match Game" (1973),"Password" (1961),and "To Tell the Truth" (1956).
She was known for being both smart and funny, but her unmistakable raspy voice was her signature trait.
Mary Margaret Cass passed away on March 8, 1999, at Manhattan's Sloane-Kettering Hospital due to heart failure.
