Mary Brian
Encyclopedia
Mary Brian was an American actress and movie star
who made the transition from 'silents
' to 'talkies
'.
, Texas
, the daughter of Taurrence J. Dantzler (December 1869 – March 18, 1906) and Louise B. (August 12, 1876 – April 3, 1973). Her brother was Taurrence J. Dantzler, Jr. (August 9, 1903 – April 6, 1973).
Her father died when she was one month old and the family later moved to Dallas
. In the early 1920s, they moved to Long Beach
, California
. She had intended becoming an illustrator but that was laid aside when at age 16 she was discovered in a local bathing beauty contest
. One of the judges was famous motion picture star Esther Ralston
(who was to play her mother in the upcoming Peter Pan and who became a lifelong friend).
She didn't win the $25 prize in the contest but Ralston said, "you've got to give the little girl something." So, her prize was to be interviewed by director Herbert Brenon for a role in Peter Pan. Brenon was recovering from eye surgery, and she spoke with him in a dimly lit room. "He asked me a few questions, Is that your hair? Out of the blue, he said, I would like to make a test. Even to this day, I will never know why I was that lucky. They had made tests of every ingénue in the business for Wendy. He had decided he would go with an unknown. It would seem more like a fairy tale. It wouldn't seem right if the roles were to be taken by someone they (the audience) knew or was divorced. I got the part. They put me under contract." The studio renamed her Mary Brian.
and cast by director
Herbert Brenon as Wendy Darling in his silent movie
version of J. M. Barrie
's Peter Pan
(1924
). There she starred with Betty Bronson
and Esther Ralston
, and the three of them stayed close for the rest of their lives. Ralston described both Bronson and Brian as 'very charming people'.
The studio
, who created her stage name
for the movie and said she was age 16 instead of 18, because the latter sounded too old for the role, then signed her to a long-term motion picture
contract
. Brian played Fancy Vanhern, daughter of Percy Marmont
, in Brenon's The Street of Forgotten Men (1925
), which had newcomer Louise Brooks
in an uncredited debut role as a moll.
, she played a college belle, Mary Abbott, opposite William Haines
and Jack Pickford
in Brown of Harvard
(1926
). She was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
in 1926, along with Mary Astor
, Dolores Costello
, Joan Crawford
, Dolores del Río
, Janet Gaynor
, and Fay Wray
.
During her years at Paramount, Brian appeared in more than 40 movies as the juvenile lead, the ingenue or co-star. She worked with Brenon again in 1926 when she played Isabel in P. C. Wren
's Beau Geste
starring Ronald Colman
. That same year she made Behind the Front and Harold Teen
. In 1928
, she played ingenue Alice Deane in Forgotten Faces opposite Clive Brook, her sacrificing father, with Olga Baclanova
as her vixen mother and William Powell
as Froggy. Like many of Brian's Paramount movies, Forgotten Faces, which was a big box-office hit, did not survive and is presumed lost for all time.
was Varsity (1928
), which was filmed with part-sound and talking sequences, opposite Buddy Rogers. After successfully making the transition to sound, she co-starred with Gary Cooper
, Walter Huston
and Richard Arlen
in one of the earliest Western
talkies, The Virginian
(1929
), her first all-talkie feature. In it, she played a spirited frontier heroine, schoolmarm Molly Stark Wood, who was the love interest of the Virginian (Cooper).
Brian co-starred in several hits during the 1930s, including her role as Gwen Cavendish in George Cukor
’s comedy
The Royal Family of Broadway
(1930
) with Ina Claire
and Fredric March
, as herself in Paramount's all-star revue Paramount on Parade
(1930), as Peggy Grant in Lewis Milestone
’s comedy The Front Page (1931
) with Adolphe Menjou
and Pat O'Brien
.
After her contract with Paramount ended in 1932, Brian freelanced. That same year, she appeared on the vaudeville
stage
at New York
's Palace Theatre
. Also in the same year,she starred in Manhattan Tower
.
Other movie roles include Murial Ross, aka Murial Rossi, in Shadows of Sing Sing (1933
), in which she received top billing, Gloria Van Dayham in College Rhythm (1934
), Yvette Lamartine in Charlie Chan in Paris
(1935
), Hope Wolfinger, W. C. Fields
’s daughter, in Man on the Flying Trapeze
(1935
), Sally Barnaby in Spendthrift (1936
) opposite Henry Fonda
, and Doris in Navy Blues
(1937
), in which she received top billing.
In 1936, she went to England
and made three movies, including The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss
in which she starred opposite Cary Grant
, to whom she became engaged at one stage.
Her final film of the 1930s was Affairs of Cappy Ricks
.
(1947
), a B-movie
in which she played Anne Hogan opposite Henry Wilcoxon
. Over the course of 22 years, Brian had appeared in more than 79 movies.
She toured in the stage comedy Mary Had a Little... in the 1940s. During World War II
, she entertained servicemen in the South Pacific
and in Europe
. She spent Christmas
of 1944 with the soldiers fighting the Battle of the Bulge
.
During the 1950s, Brian had something of a career in television, most notably playing the title character's mother in Meet Corliss Archer
(1954).
She also dedicated a lot of time to portrait painting in her retirement years.
, Brian had only two husbands: magazine illustrator Jon Whitcomb
(for six weeks, beginning May 4, 1941) and film editor George Tomasini
(from 1947 until his death in 1964). After retiring from the screen for good, she devoted herself to her husband's career; Tomasini worked as film editor for Hitchcock
on the classics Rear Window
(1954
) and Psycho
(1960
).
She died of heart failure at age 96 in Del Mar, California
. She is interred in the Eternal Love Section, Lot 4134, Space 2, Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery
, Los Angeles
, overlooking Burbank
.
Mary Brian has a star for her contribution to motion pictures on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1559 Vine Street
in Hollywood
.
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...
who made the transition from 'silents
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
' to 'talkies
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
'.
Early life
She was born Louise Byrdie Dantzler in CorsicanaCorsicana, Texas
Corsicana is a city in Navarro County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 45 some fifty-five miles south of downtown Dallas. The population was 24,485 at the 2000 census...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, the daughter of Taurrence J. Dantzler (December 1869 – March 18, 1906) and Louise B. (August 12, 1876 – April 3, 1973). Her brother was Taurrence J. Dantzler, Jr. (August 9, 1903 – April 6, 1973).
Her father died when she was one month old and the family later moved to Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
. In the early 1920s, they moved to Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, 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...
. She had intended becoming an illustrator but that was laid aside when at age 16 she was discovered in a local bathing beauty contest
Beauty contest
A beauty pageant or beauty contest, is a competition that mainly focuses on the physical beauty of its contestants, although such contests often incorporate personality, talent, and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria...
. One of the judges was famous motion picture star Esther Ralston
Esther Ralston
Esther Ralston was an American movie actress whose greatest popularity came during the silent era.-Early life and career:...
(who was to play her mother in the upcoming Peter Pan and who became a lifelong friend).
She didn't win the $25 prize in the contest but Ralston said, "you've got to give the little girl something." So, her prize was to be interviewed by director Herbert Brenon for a role in Peter Pan. Brenon was recovering from eye surgery, and she spoke with him in a dimly lit room. "He asked me a few questions, Is that your hair? Out of the blue, he said, I would like to make a test. Even to this day, I will never know why I was that lucky. They had made tests of every ingénue in the business for Wendy. He had decided he would go with an unknown. It would seem more like a fairy tale. It wouldn't seem right if the roles were to be taken by someone they (the audience) knew or was divorced. I got the part. They put me under contract." The studio renamed her Mary Brian.
Discovery
After her showing in the beauty contest, she was given an audition by Paramount PicturesParamount 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...
and cast by director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Herbert Brenon as Wendy Darling in his silent movie
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
version of J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
's Peter Pan
Peter Pan (1924 film)
Peter Pan is a 1924 adventure silent film released by Paramount Pictures, the first film adaptation of the play by J. M. Barrie. It was directed by Herbert Brenon and starred Betty Bronson as Peter Pan, Ernest Torrence as Captain Hook, Mary Brian as Wendy, and Virginia Browne Faire as Tinker Bell...
(1924
1924 in film
-Events:* Entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
). There she starred with Betty Bronson
Betty Bronson
Betty Bronson was an American television and film actress who began her career during the silent film era. She was a famous actress in silent and sound films.-Film career:...
and Esther Ralston
Esther Ralston
Esther Ralston was an American movie actress whose greatest popularity came during the silent era.-Early life and career:...
, and the three of them stayed close for the rest of their lives. Ralston described both Bronson and Brian as 'very charming people'.
The studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
, who created her stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
for the movie and said she was age 16 instead of 18, because the latter sounded too old for the role, then signed her to a long-term motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
. Brian played Fancy Vanhern, daughter of Percy Marmont
Percy Marmont
Percy Marmont was an English film actor. He appeared in over 80 films between 1916 and 1968. He is best remembered today for playing the title character in Lord Jim the first film version of Joseph Conrad's novel, and for playing one of Clara Bow's love interests in the Paramount Pictures film...
, in Brenon's The Street of Forgotten Men (1925
1925 in film
-Events:*November 5: The Big Parade holds its Grand Premier*December 30: premier of Ben-Hur the most expensive silent film ever made costing 4-6 million dollars -Top grossing films :...
), which had newcomer Louise Brooks
Louise Brooks
Mary Louise Brooks , generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, noted for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W...
in an uncredited debut role as a moll.
Career rise
Brian was dubbed "The Sweetest Girl in Pictures." On loan-out to MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, she played a college belle, Mary Abbott, opposite William Haines
William Haines
Charles William "Billy" Haines was an American film actor and interior designer. He was a star of the silent era until the 1930s, when Haines' career was cut short by MGM Studios due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality...
and Jack Pickford
Jack Pickford
Jack Pickford was a Canadian-born American actor. He was best known for his tabloid lifestyle, marriage to the top starlets of his day, and being of the famous Pickford acting family.-Early life:...
in Brown of Harvard
Brown of Harvard (1926 film)
Brown of Harvard is a 1926 silent film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring William Haines. The film is the best known of the three Brown of Harvard films, having been John Wayne's screen debut. Uncredited, Wayne played a "Yale Football Player". Grady Sutton and Robert Livingston, both of...
(1926
1926 in film
-Events:*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system used multiple 33⅓ rpm disc records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film....
). She was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
in 1926, along with Mary Astor
Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
, Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen"...
, Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
, Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor was an American actress and painter.One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven , Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Street Angel...
, and Fay Wray
Fay Wray
Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...
.
During her years at Paramount, Brian appeared in more than 40 movies as the juvenile lead, the ingenue or co-star. She worked with Brenon again in 1926 when she played Isabel in P. C. Wren
P. C. Wren
Percival Christopher Wren was a British writer, mostly of adventure fiction. He is remembered best for Beau Geste, a much-filmed book of 1924, involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa, and its main sequels, Beau Sabreur and Beau Ideal Percival Christopher Wren (1 November 187522...
's Beau Geste
Beau Geste (1926 film)
Beau Geste is a 1926 silent film, based on the novel by P. C. Wren. This version starred Ronald Colman as the title character. -Plot:The plot concerns a valuable gem, which one of the Geste brothers, Beau, is thought to have stolen from his adoptive family.-Cast:*Ronald Colman as Michael 'Beau'...
starring Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
. That same year she made Behind the Front and Harold Teen
Harold Teen
Harold Teen was a popular, long-running comic strip written and drawn by Carl Ed . Publisher Joseph Medill Patterson may have suggested, and certainly approved, the strip's concept, loosely based on Booth Tarkington's successful novel Seventeen. Asked in the late 1930s why he had started the strip,...
. In 1928
1928 in film
-Events:Although some movies released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent.* July 28 - Lights of New York is released by Warner Brothers. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film...
, she played ingenue Alice Deane in Forgotten Faces opposite Clive Brook, her sacrificing father, with Olga Baclanova
Olga Baclanova
Olga Vladimirovna Baclanova, or Baklanova, was a Russian-born actress, who achieved prominence during the silent film era. She was billed as the Russian Tigress and remains most noted by modern audiences for portraying the leading lady in Tod Browning's unique horror movie Freaks , which features...
as her vixen mother and William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
as Froggy. Like many of Brian's Paramount movies, Forgotten Faces, which was a big box-office hit, did not survive and is presumed lost for all time.
Successful transition to 'Talkies'
Her first talkieSound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
was Varsity (1928
1928 in film
-Events:Although some movies released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent.* July 28 - Lights of New York is released by Warner Brothers. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film...
), which was filmed with part-sound and talking sequences, opposite Buddy Rogers. After successfully making the transition to sound, she co-starred with Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, Walter Huston
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...
and Richard Arlen
Richard Arlen
-Biography:Born Sylvanus Richard Van Mattimore in St. Paul, Minnesota, he attended the University of Pennsylvania. He served as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. His first job after the war was with St. Paul's Athletic Club...
in one of the earliest Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
talkies, The Virginian
The Virginian (1929 film)
The Virginian is a 1929 western movie starring Gary Cooper as the Virginian and Walter Huston as the villainous Trampas. The early sound film was directed by Victor Fleming....
(1929
1929 in film
-Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....
), her first all-talkie feature. In it, she played a spirited frontier heroine, schoolmarm Molly Stark Wood, who was the love interest of the Virginian (Cooper).
Brian co-starred in several hits during the 1930s, including her role as Gwen Cavendish in George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
’s comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
The Royal Family of Broadway
The Royal Family of Broadway
The Royal Family of Broadway is a comedy film, directed by George Cukor and Cyril Gardner, and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Gertrude Purcell from the play The Royal Family by Edna Ferber and George S...
(1930
1930 in film
-Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism...
) with Ina Claire
Ina Claire
Ina Claire was an American stage and film actress.-Career:Born Ina Fagan in 1893 in Washington, D.C., Claire began her career appearing in vaudeville...
and Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
, as herself in Paramount's all-star revue Paramount on Parade
Paramount on Parade
Paramount on Parade is a all-star revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Victor Heerman, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H...
(1930), as Peggy Grant in Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone was a Russian-American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front , both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director...
’s comedy The Front Page (1931
1931 in film
-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
) with Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born...
and Pat O'Brien
Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O’Brien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.-Early life:O’Brien was born William Joseph Patrick O’Brien to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an altar boy at Gesu Church while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets...
.
After her contract with Paramount ended in 1932, Brian freelanced. That same year, she appeared on the vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
at New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, New York
The Palace Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1564 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan.-History:Designed by architects Kirchoff & Rose, the theatre was built by Martin Beck a California vaudeville entrepreneur and Broadway impresario. The project experienced a number of business problems before...
. Also in the same year,she starred in Manhattan Tower
Manhattan Tower (film)
Manhattan Tower is a 1932 film directed by Frank R. Strayer starring Mary Brian and James Hall. Manhattan Tower is currently available via the Internet Archive.- Plot summary :...
.
Other movie roles include Murial Ross, aka Murial Rossi, in Shadows of Sing Sing (1933
1933 in film
-Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....
), in which she received top billing, Gloria Van Dayham in College Rhythm (1934
1934 in film
-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...
), Yvette Lamartine in Charlie Chan in Paris
Charlie Chan in Paris
Charlie Chan in Paris is the seventh film produced by Fox with Warner Oland as Charlie Chan.-Plot:Chan is on his way back from completing the London case -- they always mentioned the previous case -- to go on "vacation" to Paris, but this is just a way to make people think that heis innocently there...
(1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
), Hope Wolfinger, W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
’s daughter, in Man on the Flying Trapeze
Man on the Flying Trapeze
Man on the Flying Trapeze is a 1935 comedy film starring W. C. Fields as a henpecked husband. As with his other roles of this nature, Fields is put-upon throughout the film, but triumphs in the end.-Plot:...
(1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
), Sally Barnaby in Spendthrift (1936
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...
) opposite Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, and Doris in Navy Blues
Navy Blues (1937 film)
- Cast :*Dick Purcell as Russell J. 'Rusty' Gibbs*Mary Brian as Doris Kimbell*Warren Hymer as Gerald 'Biff' Jones*Joe Sawyer as Chips*Edward Woods as Julian Everett*Horace McMahon as Gateleg*Chester Clute as Uncle Andrew Wayne...
(1937
1937 in film
The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....
), in which she received top billing.
In 1936, she went to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and made three movies, including The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss
The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss
The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss is a 1936 British romantic comedy film directed by Alfred Zeisler and starring Cary Grant. The film was re-issued in the United States in 1937 under the title The Amazing Adventure. It is a remake of the 1920 film The Amazing Quest of Mr. Ernest Bliss.-Plot...
in which she starred opposite Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, to whom she became engaged at one stage.
Her final film of the 1930s was Affairs of Cappy Ricks
Affairs of Cappy Ricks
- Cast :*Walter Brennan as Cappy Ricks*Mary Brian as Frances 'Frankie' Ricks*Lyle Talbot as Bill Peck*Frank Shields as Waldo P. Bottomly Jr.*Frank Melton as Matt Peasely*Georgia Caine as Mrs. Amanda Peasely*Phyllis Barry as Ellen Ricks Peasely...
.
Later career
Brian was absent from the screen from 1937 to 1943, and appeared in only a handful of films thereafter. Her last performance on the silver screen was in DragnetDragnet (1947 film)
Dragnet is a 1947 American crime film directed by Leslie Goodwins and starring Henry Wilcoxon, Mary Brian, Douglass Dumbrille, Virginia Dale, Don C. Harvey and Ralph Dunn. The screenplay is written by Barbara Worth and Harry Essex...
(1947
1947 in film
The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...
), a B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
in which she played Anne Hogan opposite Henry Wilcoxon
Henry Wilcoxon
Henry Wilcoxon was an actor born in Roseau, Dominica, British West Indies, and best known as a leading man in many of Cecil B. DeMille's films, also serving as DeMille's associate producer on his later films....
. Over the course of 22 years, Brian had appeared in more than 79 movies.
She toured in the stage comedy Mary Had a Little... in the 1940s. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, she entertained servicemen in the South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
and in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. She spent Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
of 1944 with the soldiers fighting the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
.
During the 1950s, Brian had something of a career in television, most notably playing the title character's mother in Meet Corliss Archer
Meet Corliss Archer (TV series)
Meet Corliss Archer is an American sitcom that aired in syndication from April to December 1955. The series stars Ann Baker in the title role...
(1954).
She also dedicated a lot of time to portrait painting in her retirement years.
Personal life
Though she was engaged numerous times and was linked romantically to numerous Hollywood men, including Cary Grant and notorious womaniser Jack PickfordJack Pickford
Jack Pickford was a Canadian-born American actor. He was best known for his tabloid lifestyle, marriage to the top starlets of his day, and being of the famous Pickford acting family.-Early life:...
, Brian had only two husbands: magazine illustrator Jon Whitcomb
Jon Whitcomb
Jon Whitcomb was an American illustrator. He was well-known for his pictures of glamorous young women. He was born in Weatherford, Oklahoma and grew up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin...
(for six weeks, beginning May 4, 1941) and film editor George Tomasini
George Tomasini
George Tomasini was an American film editor, born in Springfield, Massachusetts who had a notable collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock, editing nine of his movies in the decade 1954-1964...
(from 1947 until his death in 1964). After retiring from the screen for good, she devoted herself to her husband's career; Tomasini worked as film editor for Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
on the classics Rear Window
Rear Window
Rear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder"...
(1954
1954 in film
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
) and Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
(1960
1960 in film
The year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...
).
She died of heart failure at age 96 in Del Mar, California
Del Mar, California
Del Mar is an upscale beach town in San Diego County, California. The population was 4,161 at the 2010 census, down from 4,389 at the 2000 census. The San Diego County Fair is hosted on the Del Mar Fairgrounds every summer. Del Mar is Spanish for "of the sea" or "by the sea", because it is located...
. She is interred in the Eternal Love Section, Lot 4134, Space 2, Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...
, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, overlooking Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
.
Mary Brian has a star for her contribution to motion pictures on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 1559 Vine Street
Vine Street
Vine is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California that runs north-south from Melrose Avenue up past Hollywood Boulevard. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine was once a symbol of Hollywood itself...
in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
.