Mary Brian [114767] Gender: Female Popularity: 0.3301 Birthplace: Corsicana, Texas, USA Birthday: 1906-02-17 Deathday: 2002-12-30 Age: 96 years Movies: 76 Links: Homepage, IMDB Biography: 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. Noisy Silencers2024-12-10 Dragnet1947-08-16 Danger! Women at1943-08-23 I Escaped from t1943-05-14 Calaboose1943-01-29 Jealous1942-02-02 I Was a Criminal1941-01-01 Affairs of Cappy1937-05-24 Navy Blues1937-03-29 Two's Company1936-12-12 Killer at Large1936-10-27 Three Married Me1936-09-24 The Amazing Ques1936-07-28 Spendthrift1936-07-22 Once in a Millio1936-08-03 Man on the Flyin1935-08-03 Charlie Chan in 1935-01-21 Star Night at th1934-12-01 College Rhythm1934-11-23 Monte Carlo Nigh1934-05-20 Ever Since Eve1934-03-25 Fog1933-11-11 One Year Later1933-08-24 Moonlight and Pr1933-08-01 Song of the Eagl1933-04-27 The World Gone M1933-04-15 Girl Missing1933-03-04 Hard to Handle1933-01-28 Manhattan Tower1932-12-01 The Unwritten La1932-11-26 Blessed Event1932-09-10 It's Tough to Be1932-04-02 Hollywood Halfba1931-12-23 The Runaround1931-08-21 Homicide Squad1931-08-01 Gun Smoke1931-04-10 The Front Page1931-04-04 The Royal Family1930-12-22 Captain Applejac1931-01-31 Only Saps Work1930-12-05 The Social Lion1930-06-21 Paramount on Par1930-04-22 The Light of Wes1930-04-19 Only the Brave1930-03-07 Burning Up1930-02-01 The Kibitzer1930-01-11 The Marriage Pla1929-12-12 The Virginian1929-11-09 The River of Rom1929-06-28 The Man I Love1929-05-25 Black Waters1929-04-05 Someone to Love1928-12-01 Varsity1928-10-27 Forgotten Faces1928-08-05 The Big Killing1928-07-01 Harold Teen1928-04-28 Partners in Crim1928-03-01 Under the Tonto 1928-02-04 Two Flaming Yout1927-12-17 Shanghai Bound1927-10-15 Man Power1927-07-09 Running Wild1927-06-10 Knockout Reilly1927-04-16 Stepping Along1926-11-14 The Prince of Te1926-10-17 Beau Geste1926-08-24 More Pay - Less 1926-07-04 Brown of Harvard1926-05-02 Paris at Midnigh1926-04-17 Behind the Front1926-02-22 The Enchanted Hi1926-01-18 He's a Prince!1925-10-05 The Street of Fo1925-07-24 The Air Mail1925-03-15 The Little Frenc1925-02-01 Peter Pan1924-12-29