In Remembrance: Mary Brian

     Actress Mary Brian, considered one of the most attractive leading ladies of the `20s and `30s and survived the move from silent films to early talkies died on December 30, 2002 at her home in Del Mar, California of heart failure. She was 96.

     Born Louise Byrdie Dantzler on February 17, 1906 in Corsicana, Texas. Moving to Long Beach California with her family, she was discovered by a Paramount Studios talent scout in a local beauty contest.

     Her first movie was in Peter Pan (1924, directed by Herbert Brenon) where she was cast as Wendy, having lost the title role to Betty Bronson. The film’s near instantaneous success resulted in contract with Paramount and a name change to Mary Brian.

     Her illustrious career spanned nearly a quarter of a century and 82 films and brought her roles opposite such top notch leading men including Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Cary Grant and Fredric March.

    After a starring role in Beau Geste (1926, again directed by Brenon) she adroitly adapted to talkies with her lively portrayal of a frontier heroine opposite Gary Cooper in The Virginian (1929). She followed with a string of hits in the `30s including George Cukor’s comedy The Royal Family of Broadway (1930), Lewis Milestone’s farce The Front Page (1931) and W. C. Field’s The Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935). She also appeared in Spendthrift (1936) opposite Henry Fonda and Navy Blues (1937).

     She retired for a short time but reappeared in a few low budget films, her last being Dragnet in 1947. That same year she married film editor George Tomasine, who had worked with Alfred Hitchcock on the classics Rear Window (1954) and Psycho (1960).

     Brian later did some stage work and occasional television appearances and dedicated much of her free to portrait painting.

-John Gibbon