Mary Brian

Lovely Mary Brian as photographed by Eugene Richee for the 1929 film THE MARRIAGE PLAYGROUND. Dubbed "The Sweetest Girl in Pictures", Mary started life as “Louise Byrdie Datzler” on February 17, 1906 (in Corsicana, Texas). Her widowed mother had big plans for young Louise and took her to California in 1923, with the intention of getting her into the film business. After several unsuccessful attempts, a bathing beauty competition in Long Beach resulted in a screen-test for the role of Wendy in the silent version of “Peter Pan” (1924). She not only got the part but a five-year contract with Paramount (1925-30) and a new name. During the next few years she played ornamental leads and second leads as adolescent heroines, including “Paris at Midnight” (1926) and “The Air Mail” (1925). She effortlessly made the transition from silents to talkies, co-starring with Gary Cooper as a feisty schoolmarm on the frontier in “The Virginian” (1929). She was also one of the all-star cast in the musical “Paramount on Parade” (1930) and then was given another good part in “The Front Page” (1931). From 1932 Mary freelanced and also performed occasionally in vaudeville at the Palace Theater. Arguably her last good picture was the romantic comedy “Hard to Handle” (1933). In 1936 Mary went to England, where she co-starred opposite Cary Grant in “The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss” (1936). She then made several pictures for Poverty Row companies such as Majestic and Monogram, including the low-budget “I Escaped from the Gestapo” (1943). Mary's motion picture career faded after 1937 and she turned towards the stage. In 1940 she went on tour with "Three after Three" , alongside Simone Simon and Mitzi Green and later entertained American troops in the South Pacific as part of the USO. In the 1950's, she enjoyed a brief resurgence on television as the mother of a "Gidget"-type teen in the syndicated sitcom “Meet Corliss Archer” (1954). After the death of her second husband, the film editor George Tomasini, she spent her retirement fulfilling a lifelong passion for portrait painting. Mary passed away of natural causes on December 30, 2002 at a retirement home in Del Mar, California at the age of 96.

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