Edith Madeleine Carroll (26 February 1906 – 2 October 1987) was an English actress, popular both in Britain and America in the 1930s and 1940s. At the peak of her success she was the highest paid actress in the world, earning a then staggering $250,000 in 1938.She was immortalized as the first of director Alfred Hitchcock's icy blonde heroines in The 39 Steps.