Barbara Read
Born in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, Barbara Read was the daughter of a contractor. Under contract to Columbia, she was paid but never used for a single picture. She quit in disgust. She was later signed by Universal and was cast as one of the Craig sisters inThree Smart Girls (1936) along with Deanna Durbin and Nan Grey. This was Barbara's first and best remembered film. Her career was over by the time she married actor William Talman, of "Perry Mason" fame, in 1953. The couple had two children: Barbara ("Barbie") and William III ("Bobo"). The marriage was turbulent as both she and Talman suffered from alcohol problems. They divorced in 1960 with Barbara gaining custody of the children. Talman took over custody a year later when Barbara's alcoholism and mental/emotional problems became overbearing. Committed suicide at her Laguna Beach, California home when she turned on the gas jets of her stove and sealed the doors and windows. She left a suicide note blaming "ill health". Barbara Read bore a powerful likeness to Deanna Durbin, whose sister she was portraying in "Three Smart Girls".
Date of Death: 11 December 1963, Laguna Beach, California (suicide)
Acting
Movie
Make Way for Tomorrow
as Rhoda Cooper
1937
Movie
Coroner Creek
as Abbie Miles (as Barbara Reed)
1948
Movie
Three Smart Girls
as Kay Craig
1936
Movie
Key Witness
as Martha Higby (as Barbara Reed)
1947
Movie
The Missing Lady
as Margo Lane
1946
Movie
The Shadow Returns
as Margo Lane
1946
Movie
The Road Back
as Lucy
1937
Movie
Behind the Mask
as Margo Lane
1946
Movie
Sorority House
as Dotty Spencer
1939
Movie
Midnight Intruder
as Patricia Hammond
1938
Movie
Married and in Love
as Helen Yates
1940
Movie
Too Many Women
as Linda Pearson
1942
Movie
Curtain Call
as Helen Middleton
1940
Movie
Rubber Racketeers
as Mary Dale
1942
Movie
The Man Who Cried Wolf
as Nan
1937
Movie
The Spellbinder
as Janet Marlowe
1939
Movie
Death Valley
as Mitzi
1946
Movie
The Mighty Treve
as Aileen Fenno
1937
Movie
Merry Go Round of 1938
as Clarice Stockbridge
1937
Movie
The Crime of Doctor Hallet
as Claire Saunders
1938
Movie
Ginger
as Peggy Sullivan (as Barbara Reed)
1947
