1921-12-04 ( 103 years old ) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Edna Mae Durbin (December 4, 1921 – April 17, 2013), known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer, who moved to the USA with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias. In 1946, Durbin was the second-highest-paid woman in the United States, just behind Bette Davis; her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years.
Durbin was a child actress who made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios. She achieved success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), and It Started with Eve (1941). Her work was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy, and led to Durbin being awarded the Academy Juvenile Award in 1938.
As she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her and attempted to move into sophisticated non-musical roles with film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945). These films, produced by frequent collaborator and second husband Felix Jackson, were not as successful; she continued in musical roles until her retirement. Upon her retirement and divorce from Jackson in 1949, Durbin married producer-director Charles Henri David and moved to a farmhouse near Paris. She withdrew from public life, granting only one interview on her career in 1983.
Movies
Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1930s: Dancing Away the Great Depression
2009-01-01
Los Angeles Plays Itself
2004-07-28
Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song
2002-03-21
Hollywood’s Children
1982-02-24
That's Entertainment!
1974-06-21
For the Love of Mary
1948-09-01
Up in Central Park
1948-07-09
Something in the Wind
1947-07-21
I'll Be Yours
1947-02-02
Because of Him
1946-01-18
Lady on a Train
1945-08-03
Can't Help Singing
1944-12-25
Christmas Holiday
1944-07-31
The Shining Future
1944-04-11
His Butler's Sister
1943-11-26
Hers to Hold
1943-07-16
Show-Business at War
1943-05-21
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
1943-02-19
It Started with Eve
1941-09-26
Nice Girl?
1941-02-21
A Friend Indeed
1941-01-02
Angels of Mercy
1940-11-10
Spring Parade
1940-09-27
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940-07-31
It's a Date
1940-03-22
First Love
1939-11-10
Three Smart Girls Grow Up
1939-03-24
That Certain Age
1938-10-06
Mad About Music
1938-02-27
One Hundred Men and a Girl
1937-09-05
Three Smart Girls
1936-12-20
Every Sunday
1936-11-28
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