page_title: Madge Kennedy
section_title: Personal life and death
hierarchical_section_title: Madge Kennedy / Personal life and death
caption_attribution_description: Publicity photo of Madge Kennedy and Jack Mulhall from the television program Goodyear Theater.
context_page_description: Madge Kennedy was a stage, film and TV actress whose career began as a stage actress in 1912 and flourished in motion pictures during the silent film era. In 1921, journalist Heywood Broun described her as "the best farce actress in New York".
context_section_description: Kennedy's contract with Goldwyn ended in 1921. She decided to return to the stage so that she could be close to her husband, broker Harold Bolster, in New York. Bolster died on August 3, 1927 from an illness he contracted months before during a business trip to South America. He was a member of the New York banking firm of Bennett, Bolster & Coghill. Bolster was 38 and a veteran of World War I. Kennedy inherited more than $500,000 when he died.
  She wed William B. Hanley, Jr., in Kingman, Arizona, on August 13, 1934. Hanley was an actor and radio personality. The couple resided in Los Angeles, California. Kennedy retired temporarily after her marriage before returning to work in entertainment. The couple would remain married until Hanley's death in 1959.
  She enjoyed outdoor activities such as playing golf, horseback riding and driving cars. She owned a Willys-Knight Great Six which she drove avidly at the time she was touring in 1929 in the play, Lulu. In August 1929, she was sued in a Norwich, Connecticut court for damages she caused in a car accident on the Boston Post Road near Groton, Connecticut, in June 1928. The plaintiffs asked for $13,000.
  Madge Kennedy died of respiratory failure at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, in 1987.
caption: In 1959, with silent screen star Jack Mulhall in publicity photo for Goodyear Theater
exif: {}