1906-02-17 ( 119 years old ) in Corsicana, Texas, USA
Mary Brian (born Louise Byrdie Dantzler, February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002), was an American actress, who made the transition from silent films to sound films. Brian was dubbed "The Sweetest Girl in Pictures."
After her showing in a beauty contest, she was given an audition by Paramount Pictures and cast by director Herbert Brenon as Wendy Darling in his silent movie version of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. 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, which had newcomer Louise Brooks in an uncredited debut role as a moll.
Her first talkie was Varsity, 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, 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.
Brian co-starred in several hits during the 1930s, including The Royal Family of Broadway, Paramount on Parade, and The Front Page.
After her contract with Paramount ended in 1932, Brian decided to freelance, which was unusual in a period when multi-year contracts with one studio were common. 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.
When World War II hit in 1941, Brian began traveling to entertain the troops, ending up spending most of the war years traveling the world with the U.S.O., and entertaining servicemen from the South Pacific to Europe, including Italy and North Africa.Flying to England on a troop shoot, Mary got caught in the Battle of the Bulge and spent the Christmas of 1944 with the soldiers fighting that battle. She appeared in only a handful of films thereafter. Her last performance on the silver screen was in Dragnet, 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 played in the stage comedy Mary Had a Little... in the 1951 in Melbourne, Australia, co-starring with John Hubbard.
Like many "older" actresses, during the 1950s Brian created a career for herself in television. Perhaps her most notable role was playing the title character's mother in Meet Corliss Archer in 1954. She also dedicated much time to portrait painting after her acting years.
Movies
Noisy Silencers
2024-12-10
Dragnet
1947-08-16
Danger! Women at Work
1943-08-23
I Escaped from the Gestapo
1943-05-14
Calaboose
1943-01-29
Jealous
1942-02-02
I Was a Criminal
1941-01-01
Affairs of Cappy Ricks
1937-05-24
Navy Blues
1937-03-29
Two's Company
1936-12-12
Killer at Large
1936-10-27
Three Married Men
1936-09-24
Once in a Million
1936-08-03
The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss
1936-07-28
Spendthrift
1936-07-22
Man on the Flying Trapeze
1935-08-03
Charlie Chan in Paris
1935-01-21
Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove
1934-12-01
College Rhythm
1934-11-23
Monte Carlo Nights
1934-05-20
Ever Since Eve
1934-03-25
Fog
1933-11-11
One Year Later
1933-08-24
Moonlight and Pretzels
1933-08-01
Song of the Eagle
1933-04-27
The World Gone Mad
1933-04-15
Girl Missing
1933-03-04
Hard to Handle
1933-01-28
Manhattan Tower
1932-12-01
The Unwritten Law
1932-11-26
Blessed Event
1932-09-10
It's Tough to Be Famous
1932-04-02
Hollywood Halfbacks
1931-12-23
The Runaround
1931-08-21
Homicide Squad
1931-08-01
Gun Smoke
1931-04-10
The Front Page
1931-04-04
Captain Applejack
1931-01-31
The Royal Family of Broadway
1930-12-22
Only Saps Work
1930-12-05
The Social Lion
1930-06-21
Paramount on Parade
1930-04-22
The Light of Western Stars
1930-04-19
Only the Brave
1930-03-07
Burning Up
1930-02-01
The Kibitzer
1930-01-11
The Marriage Playground
1929-12-12
The Virginian
1929-11-09
The River of Romance
1929-06-28
The Man I Love
1929-05-25
Black Waters
1929-04-05
Someone to Love
1928-12-01
Varsity
1928-10-27
Forgotten Faces
1928-08-05
The Big Killing
1928-07-01
Harold Teen
1928-04-28
Partners in Crime
1928-03-01
Under the Tonto Rim
1928-02-04
Two Flaming Youths
1927-12-17
Shanghai Bound
1927-10-15
Man Power
1927-07-09
Running Wild
1927-06-10
Knockout Reilly
1927-04-16
Stepping Along
1926-11-14
The Prince of Tempters
1926-10-17
Beau Geste
1926-08-24
More Pay - Less Work
1926-07-04
Brown of Harvard
1926-05-02
Paris at Midnight
1926-04-17
Behind the Front
1926-02-22
The Enchanted Hill
1926-01-18
He's a Prince!
1925-10-05
The Street of Forgotten Men
1925-07-24
The Air Mail
1925-03-15
The Little French Girl
1925-02-01
Peter Pan
1924-12-29
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