Posted on 01/06/2003 9:03:57 AM PST by jjhunsecker
Mary Brian, Actress in Silent Films and Talkies, Dies at 96 By WOLFGANG SAXON
Mary Brian, a film star and memorable ingenue who bridged the silent and early sound eras, died on Monday in Del Mar, Calif. She was 96 and lived in Los Angeles. Between "Peter Pan" in 1924 and "Dragnet" in 1947 Ms. Brian appeared in 82 films. Petite, with blue-gray eyes and dark-brown curls, she was one of Hollywood's romantic leading ladies from the mid-1920's through the late 30's. While she did not rank with superstars like Clara Bow or Mary Pickford, she was a bankable contract player and a gratifying attraction at the box office. Her leading men were the likes of Gary Cooper, Lew Ayres, James Cagney, Cary Grant, William Haines, Warner Oland and Dick Powell. Among her films still shown at film festivals and on television are "Peter Pan" and one of the earliest western talkies, "The Virginian," from 1929, with Cooper as the title character and Walter Huston as the villain. In that film Ms. Brian portrayed Molly Wood, a schoolteacher who is the Virginian's romantic interest. In his review in The New York Times, Mordaunt Hall wrote that there was good humor in Medicine Bow when "the lass from the East clashes with the lads from the West," adding that Ms. Brian helped the picture along, although "she might have been more persuasive with less rouge on her lips." The review also said that "the sounds, whether footfalls, horses' hoofs, rumbling wheels or voices, are really remarkably recorded and reproduced," and noted that movie depictions of life in the Wild West were "aided immeasurably by the audibility of the screen." Ms. Brian was born Louise Byrdie Dantzler in Corsicana, Tex. After the family's move to Long Beach, Calif., she entered a beauty contest —— and though she did not win a prize, Paramount invited her to audition for a child's part in its film version of "Peter Pan." The director, Herbert Brenon, cast the young Louise as Wendy. The studio gave her a new name, Mary Brian, and pared her age to 16, deeming 18 too grown up for the part. (After that, Ms. Brian kept her real age to herself, calling it "negotiable.") She remained under contract to Paramount until 1932, appearing in more than 40 of its productions. She showed her mettle as juvenile lead or co-star in "Beau Geste" (1926), another Brenon film, and in "Behind the Front" (1926), "Harold Teen" (1926) and "River of Romance" (1929). Easily navigating the changeover to sound, she appeared in two 1931 evergreens, George Cukor's "Royal Family of Broadway" and Lewis Milestone's "Front Page." She played W. C. Fields's daughter in several films, including "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1935). Working with him she developed a knack for playing the straight woman in comedy, which came in handy later in her career. Among her other movies of the 1930's were "Shadows of Sing Sing," "College Rhythm," "Charlie Chan in Paris" and "Navy Blues." She appeared as herself in "Hollywood on Parade No. 9" (1933) and "Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove" (1934). She took to the stage in vaudeville productions at the Palace Theater in New York in 1932 and toured in the 1940's with Edmund Lowe in a farce, "Mary Had a Little . . ." Ms. Brian said she gained a new perspective on life during World War II when she entertained troops, venturing closer to the front lines in Europe than most headliners. She spent Christmas 1944 with the soldiers fighting the Battle of the Bulge. She ended her movie career after the war with "Dragnet," but continued to make occasional television appearances. In 1947 Ms. Brian married George Tomasini, a Hollywood film editor; he died in 1964. She is survived by her godson, Stuart Erwin Jr., of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif
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