Barbara Britton
Encyclopedia
Barbara Britton was an American film and television actress.
She was the first actress to play Laura Petrie on television on the pilot program, Head of the Family, which was retooled and became The Dick Van Dyke Show
with the role taken over by Mary Tyler Moore
. The California
native signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures
in 1941. Her first two films were that same year, first in the William Boyd
western Secret of the Wasteland, followed by Louisiana Purchase
starring Bob Hope
. Her first big film appearance was a small role in the 1942 John Wayne
film Reap the Wild Wind
.
During the 1940s she starred in three films that, today, are her most recognizable film roles, two of which placed her starring opposite Randolph Scott
. The first was with Scott in the 1945 film Captain Kidd
, followed by The Virginian
in 1946, opposite Joel McCrea
. The third was in the 1947 Randolph Scott film Gunfighters
. She teamed with Randolph Scott again in the 1948 western Albuquerque, and that same year she starred opposite Gene Autry
in Loaded Pistols
. In total she starred or appeared in twenty-six films during that decade.
Reportedly, due to lasting trauma which she suffered making the 1943 war picture So Proudly We Hail!
, she sought the help of physician and psychoanalyst, Dr. Eugene J. Czukor, in 1944. The film was about a group of nurses returning from the war in the Philippines recall their experiences in combat and in love. Britton and Dr. Czukor (22 years her senior) married soon after, lasting until Britton's death 35 years later.
Britton starred in the 1950s television show Mr. and Mrs. North
, a Thin Man
-like mystery show with Richard Denning
and Francis De Sales
. She was probably best known for being the spokesperson for Revlon
products in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in ads and commercials including live spots on The $64,000 Question.
One of Britton's last roles was on the daytime TV-soap One Life to Live
in 1979, a year before she died of gastric cancer in New York City, on January 17, 1980, aged 60.
For many years Britton and her husband lived in a rambling red shingled house in the Fairfield County
town of Bethel, Connecticut
before moving to the now antique-gallery enclave of Woodbury, Connecticut
. Oldest daughter Christina Britton became an actress and operatic singer while son Ted appeared on episodic TV. Her widower, Dr. Eugene Czukor, died in 1989, at age 92.
She was the first actress to play Laura Petrie on television on the pilot program, Head of the Family, which was retooled and became The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
with the role taken over by Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...
. The California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
native signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
in 1941. Her first two films were that same year, first in the William Boyd
William Boyd (actor)
William Lawrence Boyd was an American film actor best known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy.-Biography:...
western Secret of the Wasteland, followed by Louisiana Purchase
Louisiana Purchase (film)
Louisiana Purchase is a 1941 film adaptation of the musical theater play, Louisiana Purchase. A Paramount Pictures production, the film was directed by Irving Cummings with Robert Emmett Dolan serving as musical director as he had done for the play. Starring comedian Bob Hope, the film featured...
starring Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
. Her first big film appearance was a small role in the 1942 John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
film Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind is a serialized story written by Thelma Strabel in 1940 for The Saturday Evening Post, which was the basis for the 1942 film starring Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, and Susan Hayward, and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, his second picture to be filmed in...
.
During the 1940s she starred in three films that, today, are her most recognizable film roles, two of which placed her starring opposite Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
. The first was with Scott in the 1945 film Captain Kidd
Captain Kidd (1945 film)
Captain Kidd is a film starring Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton, and John Carradine, directed by Rowland V. Lee, produced by Benedict Bogeaus and James Nasser, music conduced by Werner Janssen, and released by United Artists. The film has entered the public domain since the...
, followed by The Virginian
The Virginian (1946 film)
The Virginian is a 1946 film based upon the Owen Wister novel, with Joel McCrea as the Virginian and Brian Donlevy as Trampas. The film was directed by Stuart Gilmore and remains widely regarded as an inferior remake of the 1929 movie with Gary Cooper and Walter Huston. There have been several...
in 1946, opposite Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
. The third was in the 1947 Randolph Scott film Gunfighters
Gunfighters (film)
Gunfighters is a 1947 American film directed by George Waggner.The film is also known as The Assassin in the United Kingdom.- Cast :*Randolph Scott as Brazos Kane*Barbara Britton as Bess Banner*Bruce Cabot as Bard Macky...
. She teamed with Randolph Scott again in the 1948 western Albuquerque, and that same year she starred opposite Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
in Loaded Pistols
Loaded Pistols
Loaded Pistols is a 1948 American film directed by John English.- Cast :*Gene Autry as Gene Autry*Barbara Britton as Mary Evans*Chill Wills as Sheriff Cramer*Jack Holt as Dave Randall*Russell Arms as Larry Evans...
. In total she starred or appeared in twenty-six films during that decade.
Reportedly, due to lasting trauma which she suffered making the 1943 war picture So Proudly We Hail!
So Proudly We Hail!
So Proudly We Hail! is a 1943 film directed by Mark Sandrich, and starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard – who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance – and Veronica Lake...
, she sought the help of physician and psychoanalyst, Dr. Eugene J. Czukor, in 1944. The film was about a group of nurses returning from the war in the Philippines recall their experiences in combat and in love. Britton and Dr. Czukor (22 years her senior) married soon after, lasting until Britton's death 35 years later.
Britton starred in the 1950s television show Mr. and Mrs. North
Mr. and Mrs. North
Mr. and Mrs. North are fictional American amateur detectives. Created by Frances and Richard Lockridge, the couple were featured in a series of 26 Mr. and Mrs. North novels, a Broadway play, a motion picture and several radio and television series....
, a Thin Man
The Thin Man (film)
The Thin Man is a 1934 American comic detective film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, a flirtatious married couple who banter wittily as they solve crimes with ease. Nick is a hard drinking retired detective and Nora a wealthy heiress...
-like mystery show with Richard Denning
Richard Denning
Richard Denning , was an American actor who starred in such movies as Creature from the Black Lagoon and An Affair to Remember , and on radio with Lucille Ball as her husband George Cooper in My Favorite Husband , the forerunner of television's I Love Lucy, for which Denning was replaced by Ball's...
and Francis De Sales
Francis De Sales (actor)
Francis A. De Sales was an American actor. He was known for his roles on two early television series: as police Lieutenant Bill Weigand on the CBS and then NBC drama Mr. and Mrs. North and as Sheriff Maddox in the syndicated western Two Faces West...
. She was probably best known for being the spokesperson for Revlon
Revlon
Revlon is an American cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care company founded in 1932.-History:Revlon was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the Revlon name...
products in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in ads and commercials including live spots on The $64,000 Question.
One of Britton's last roles was on the daytime TV-soap One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
in 1979, a year before she died of gastric cancer in New York City, on January 17, 1980, aged 60.
For many years Britton and her husband lived in a rambling red shingled house in the Fairfield County
Fairfield County, Connecticut
Fairfield County is a county located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The county population is 916,829 according to the 2010 Census. There are currently 1,465 people per square mile in the county. It is the most populous county in the State of Connecticut and contains...
town of Bethel, Connecticut
Bethel, Connecticut
Bethel is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, about sixty miles from New York City. Its population was 18,584 at the 2010 census. The town center is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place...
before moving to the now antique-gallery enclave of Woodbury, Connecticut
Woodbury, Connecticut
Woodbury is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,198 at the 2000 census. The town center is also designated by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place . Woodbury was founded in 1672....
. Oldest daughter Christina Britton became an actress and operatic singer while son Ted appeared on episodic TV. Her widower, Dr. Eugene Czukor, died in 1989, at age 92.
Selected filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | The Spoilers The Spoilers (1955 film) The Spoilers is a 1955 film directed by Jesse Hibbs, adapted to sceen by Oscar Brodney and Charles Hoffman from the novel and play by Rex Beach. The movie is set in Nome, Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush, with Anne Baxter as Cherry Malotte, Jeff Chandler as Roy Glennister, and Rory Calhoun as... |
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| Ain't Misbehavin' Ain't Misbehavin' (film) Ain't Misbehavin is a 1955 musical film released by Universal Studios and starring Rory Calhoun, Piper Laurie, Jack Carson and Mamie Van Doren.-Cast:* Rory Calhoun as Kenneth Post* Piper Laurie as Sarah Bernhardt Hatfield* Jack Carson as Hal North... |
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| 1950 | Champagne for Caesar Champagne for Caesar Champagne for Caesar is a 1950 American comedy film about a radio quiz show, directed by Richard Whorf and written by Fred Brady and Hans Jacoby. The movie stars Ronald Colman, Celeste Holm, Vincent Price, Barbara Britton and Art Linkletter. The film was produced by Harry M... |
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| The Bandit Queen The Bandit Queen (1950 film) The Bandit Queen is a 1950 American Western film directed by William Berke. The movie featured Barbara Britton and Phillip Reed as the leaders of a Robin Hood type band. The Bandit Queen was produced by Lippert Pictures Inc. and shot in the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park as well as the San... |
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| 1949 | I Shot Jesse James I Shot Jesse James I Shot Jesse James is a film directed by Samuel Fuller about the murder of Jesse James by Robert Ford and Robert Ford's life afterwards... |
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| Cover Up Cover Up (film) Cover Up is a 1949 black-and-white mystery film written by and starring Dennis O'Keefe. O'Keefe is credited as screenwriter Jonathan Rix. The murder mystery takes place during the Christmas season.-Plot:... |
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| 1948 | Albuquerque | ||
| Loaded Pistols Loaded Pistols Loaded Pistols is a 1948 American film directed by John English.- Cast :*Gene Autry as Gene Autry*Barbara Britton as Mary Evans*Chill Wills as Sheriff Cramer*Jack Holt as Dave Randall*Russell Arms as Larry Evans... |
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| Mr. Reckless Mr. Reckless Mr. Reckless is a 1948 American film directed by Frank McDonald.- Cast :*William Eythe as Jeff Lundy*Barbara Britton as Betty Denton*Walter Catlett as Joel Hawkins*Minna Gombell as Ma Hawkins*Lloyd Corrigan as Hugo Denton*Nestor Paiva as Gus... |
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| 1946 | The Virginian The Virginian (1946 film) The Virginian is a 1946 film based upon the Owen Wister novel, with Joel McCrea as the Virginian and Brian Donlevy as Trampas. The film was directed by Stuart Gilmore and remains widely regarded as an inferior remake of the 1929 movie with Gary Cooper and Walter Huston. There have been several... |
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| They Made Me a Killer They Made Me a Killer They Made Me a Killer is a 1946 B-movie directed by William C. Thomas, and written by Daniel Mainwaring, Winston Miller and Kae Salkow, based on story by Owen Franes. The film was made by Pine-Thomas, the B-movie unit of Paramount Pictures.- Plot :... |
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| 1945 | Captain Kidd | ||
| 1944 | The Story of Dr. Wassell The Story of Dr. Wassell The Story of Dr. Wassell is a Technicolor World War II film set in the Dutch East Indies, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Gary Cooper, Laraine Day, Signe Hasso, and Dennis O'Keefe. It is based on the wartime activities of US Navy Doctor Corydon M... |
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| 1943 | So Proudly We Hail! So Proudly We Hail! So Proudly We Hail! is a 1943 film directed by Mark Sandrich, and starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard – who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance – and Veronica Lake... |
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| Young and Willing Young and Willing Young and Willing is a 1943 American comedy film made by Paramount Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It was produced and directed by Edward H... |
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| Freedom Comes High Freedom Comes High Freedom Comes High is a 1943 dramatic short film commissioned by the United States Government during World War II and directed by Lewis Allen.-Synopsis:... |
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| 1942 | Reap the Wild Wind Reap the Wild Wind Reap the Wild Wind is a serialized story written by Thelma Strabel in 1940 for The Saturday Evening Post, which was the basis for the 1942 film starring Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, and Susan Hayward, and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, his second picture to be filmed in... |
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| Wake Island Wake Island (1942 film) Wake Island is a 1942 American film written by W. R. Burnett and Frank Butler, and directed by John Farrow. The film tells the story of the United States military garrison on Wake Island and the onslaught by the Japanese following the attack on Pearl Harbor... |
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| 1941 | Secret of the Wastelands |