Deanna Durbin
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.
Acting
Movie
That's Entertainment!
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
1974
Movie
Lady on a Train
as Nikki Collins / Margo Martin
1945
Movie
Christmas Holiday
as Jackie Lamont / Abigail Martin
1944
Movie
It Started with Eve
as Anne Terry
1941
Movie
One Hundred Men and a Girl
as Patricia Cardwell
1937
Movie
Three Smart Girls
as Penny Craig
1936
Movie
First Love
as Constance (Connie) Harding
1939
Movie
Spring Parade
as Ilonka Tolnay
1940
Movie
Mad About Music
as Gloria Harkinson
1938
Movie
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
as Ruth Kirke Holliday
1943
Movie
Can't Help Singing
as Caroline Frost
1944
Movie
Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002
Movie
Something in the Wind
as Mary Collins
1947
Movie
His Butler's Sister
as Ann Carter
1943
Movie
It's a Date
as Pamela Drake
1940
Movie
That Certain Age
as Alice Fullerton
1938
Movie
Three Smart Girls Grow Up
as Penny Craig
1939
Movie
Every Sunday
as Edna
1936
Movie
Hers to Hold
as Penelope “Penny” Craig
1943
Movie
Because of Him
as Kim Walker
1946
Movie
For the Love of Mary
as Mary Peppertree
1948
Movie
Up in Central Park
as Rosie Moore
1948
Movie
I'll Be Yours
as Louise Ginglebusher
1947
Movie
Nice Girl?
as Jane 'Pinky' Dana
1941