Editing Margaret Sullavan (section)

===Later years===
{{More citations needed|section|date=October 2021}}
[[File:Stork-Club-Cub-Room-November-1944.jpg|300px|left|thumb|Sullavan and Leland Hayward among the patrons of the [[Stork Club]] in New York City, November 1944]]
Sullavan took a break from films from 1943 to 1950. Throughout her career, Sullavan seemed to prefer the stage to the movies. She felt that only on the stage could she improve her skills as an actor. "When I really learn to act, I may take what I have learned back to Hollywood and display it on the screen," she said in an interview in October 1936 (when she was doing ''[[Stage Door (play)|Stage Door]]'' on Broadway between movies). "But as long as the flesh-and-blood theatre will have me, it is to the flesh-and-blood theatre I'll belong. I really am stage-struck. And if that be treason, Hollywood will have to make the most of it."<ref name="Lawrence J. Quirk, p. 80">Quirk, p. 80.</ref>

Another reason for her early retirement from the screen (1943) was that she wanted to spend more time with her children, Brooke, Bridget and Bill (then 6, 4 and 2 years old). She felt that she had been neglecting them and felt guilty about it.<ref name="Lawrence J. Quirk, p. 80"/> Sullavan still did stage work on occasion. From 1943 to 1944, she played the sexually inexperienced but curious Sally Middleton in ''[[The Voice of the Turtle (play)|The Voice of the Turtle]]'' (by [[John Van Druten]]) on Broadway and later in London (1947).

Sullavan returned to the screen in 1950 to do one last picture, ''[[No Sad Songs for Me]]''. She played a suburban housewife and mother who learns that she will die of cancer within a year and who then determines to find a "second" wife for her soon-to-be-widower husband ([[Wendell Corey]]). [[Natalie Wood]], then 11, played their daughter. After ''No Sad Songs for Me'' and its favorable reviews, Sullavan had a number of offers for other films, but she decided to concentrate on the stage for the rest of her career. Still, she did not return to the stage until 1952.

Her choice then was as the suicidal Hester Collyer, who meets fellow sufferer Mr. Miller (played by [[Herbert Berghof]]) in [[Terence Rattigan]]'s ''[[The Deep Blue Sea (play)|The Deep Blue Sea]].'' In 1953, she agreed to appear in ''[[Sabrina Fair]]'' by [[Samuel A. Taylor|Samuel Taylor]].
 
On December 18, 1955, Sullavan appeared as the mystery guest on the TV panel show ''[[What's My Line?]]''

In 1955 and 1956, Sullavan appeared in ''[[Janus (play)|Janus]],'' a comedy by playwright Carolyn Green. Sullavan played the part of Jessica who writes under the pen name Janus, and [[Robert Preston (actor)|Robert Preston]] played her husband. The play ran for 251 performances from November 1955 to June 1956.

In the late 1950s, Sullavan's hearing and depression were getting worse. However, in 1959, she agreed to do ''Sweet Love Remembered'' by playwright [[Ruth Goetz]]. It was to be Sullavan's first Broadway appearance in four years. Rehearsals began on December 1, 1959. She had mixed emotions about a return to acting, and her depression soon became clear to everyone: "I loathe acting", she said on the day she started rehearsals. "I loathe what it does to my life. It cancels you out. You cannot live while you are working. You are a person surrounded by an unbreachable wall".<ref>Hayward, ''Haywire''. Jonathan Cape Ltd., pg. 279.</ref>