Crimes of the Heart Show Characters

Meg (Jeannette Ryan) is the second of the three Magrath sisters. She left five years ago to pursue a singing career in California. Back home -- at least, according to her cousin -- Meg gives the family reputation a black eye.

Relationships with other characters: Meg is close to both of her sisters, and is very protective of Babe. She and Lenny sometimes get into huge fights, prompted by Meg's thoughtlessness, selfishness or both. Meg is both amused and irritated by Chick, and will deliberately provoke her just to see how she reacts. She feels put-upon by Old Granddaddy, who believes that she is destined to make it big in show business.

Doc Porter was one of Meg's beaus in high school. After Hurricane Camille, and the accident that destroyed his dreams of becoming a doctor, she abruptly fled Hazlehurst for Hollywood. She still has feelings for Doc, despite her attempts to deny them.

See photos of Jeannette as Meg Magrath!

Quotes: "Oh, now, Lenny, don't you say that! There're plenty of good sane reasons to shoot another person and I'm sure that Babe had one."

(To Chick): "Did you hear all that good news about the liver, Little Chicken?"

"But Babe, you've just got to talk to someone about all this...Because it's a human need. To talk about our lives. It's an important human need."

"I hate myself when I lie for that old man. I do. I feel so weak. And then I have to go and do at least three or four things that I know he'd despise just to get even with that miserable, old bossy man!"

(To Doc)" "I don't know why...'Cause I didn't want to care. I don't know. I did care though. I did."

Notes: "Meg's crime was being so afraid of Doc she left him with his broken leg saying she would marry him and went off to Hollywood...Meg, I think, feels reconciled with Doc, even if they're not together..." (Beth Henley, from The Playwright's Art, edited by Jackson R. Bryer, Rutgers University Press, 1995.)

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