Her co-star was Henry Fonda, who was also born in Nebraska and was making a return visit to his home town after becoming a success on Broadway.
She later attended Pine Manor Junior College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, serving as president of that school's drama club.
McGuire acted on radio, playing Sue in the serial Big Sister (1937) and took part in an experimental television broadcast, The Mysterious Mummy Case (1938).
McGuire toured in My Dear Children opposite John Barrymore, and in 1939, was in a revue with Benny Goodman, Swingin' the Dream.
Brought to Hollywood by producer David O. Selznick (who called her "a born actress")[5] on the strength of her stage performance, McGuire starred in her first film, Claudia (1943), a movie adaptation of her Broadway success.
She appeared in productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, I Am a Camera, The Winslow Boy, and Tonight at 8:30, then went to live in Italy for a year.
[9] Selznick announced a variety of films to star McGuire that were not made, including Dark Medallion,[12] A Doll's House[13] Wings of the Dove and Sands of Time.
[14] McGuire was a member of the cast of Big Sister (playing Sue Evans[15]), and Joyce Jordan, M.D.. She also appeared in This Is My Best (Miracle in the Rain),[16] Screen Directors Playhouse (The Spiral Staircase) and in Theatre Guild on the Air (Hamlet[17] A Doll's House, Our Town[18]).
She made her TV debut in Robert Montgomery Presents, an adaptation of Dark Victory, with McGuire playing the Bette Davis role.
She had a huge hit with Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) at Fox, and appeared in episodes of The United States Steel Hour, Lux Video Theatre, The Best of Broadway (an adaptation of The Philadelphia Story, as Tracey Lord), and Climax!.
[1] McGuire returned to Broadway in Winesburg, Ohio (1958), which had a short run, then she played a wife and mother in The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959) at Fox.
She played the matriarch in some melodramas: This Earth Is Mine (1959) with Jean Simmons at Universal; A Summer Place (1959) for Delmer Daves with Richard Egan, Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue at Warner Bros., a big success; and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960).
She made a second film with Daves and Donahue, Susan Slade (1961), playing a mother who passed off her daughter's illegitimate child as her own.
She provided voice work for Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973), and made one final appearance on Broadway in a revival of The Night of the Iguana (1976–77) alongside Richard Chamberlain.
[3][23] McGuire died in Santa Monica, California, on September 13, 2001, at the age of 85; she developed arrhythmia weeks after sustaining a broken leg.