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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
February 17, 1906
Died
December 30, 2002
Place of Birth
Corsicana, Texas, USA
Also Known As
- The Sweetest Girl in Pictures (nickname)
- Louise Byrdie Dantzler
Mary Brian
0.3 Popularity
Biography
Mary Brian (born Louise Byrdie Dantzler, February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002), was an American actress, who made the transition from silent films to sound films. Brian was dubbed "The Sweetest Girl in Pictures." After her showing in a beauty contest, she was given an audition by Paramount Pictures and cast by director Herbert Brenon as Wendy Darling in his silent movie version of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. There she starred with Betty Bronson and Esther Ralston, and the three of them stayed close for the rest of their lives. Ralston described both Bronson and Brian as 'very charming people'. The studio, who created her stage name for the movie and said she was age 16 instead of 18, because the latter sounded too old for the role, then signed her to a long-term motion picture contract. Brian played Fancy Vanhern, daughter of Percy Marmont, in Brenon's The Street of Forgotten Men, which had newcomer Louise Brooks in an uncredited debut role as a moll. Her first talkie was Varsity, which was filmed with part-sound and talking sequences, opposite Buddy Rogers. After successfully making the transition to sound, she co-starred with Gary Cooper, Walter Huston and Richard Arlen in one of the earliest Western talkies, The Virginian, her first all-talkie feature. In it, she played a spirited frontier heroine, schoolmarm Molly Stark Wood, who was the love interest of the Virginian. Brian co-starred in several hits during the 1930s, including The Royal Family of Broadway, Paramount on Parade, and The Front Page. After her contract with Paramount ended in 1932, Brian decided to freelance, which was unusual in a period when multi-year contracts with one studio were common. That same year, she appeared on the vaudeville stage at New York's Palace Theatre. Also in the same year, she starred in Manhattan Tower. When World War II hit in 1941, Brian began traveling to entertain the troops, ending up spending most of the war years traveling the world with the U.S.O., and entertaining servicemen from the South Pacific to Europe, including Italy and North Africa.Flying to England on a troop shoot, Mary got caught in the Battle of the Bulge and spent the Christmas of 1944 with the soldiers fighting that battle. She appeared in only a handful of films thereafter. Her last performance on the silver screen was in Dragnet, a B-movie in which she played Anne Hogan opposite Henry Wilcoxon. Over the course of 22 years, Brian had appeared in more than 79 movies. She played in the stage comedy Mary Had a Little... in the 1951 in Melbourne, Australia, co-starring with John Hubbard. Like many "older" actresses, during the 1950s Brian created a career for herself in television. Perhaps her most notable role was playing the title character's mother in Meet Corliss Archer in 1954. She also dedicated much time to portrait painting after her acting years.
Known For
0.0
(archive footage)
Noisy Silencers
2024
0.0
Meet Corliss Archer
1954
6.0
Anne Hogan
Dragnet
1947
6.0
Pert
Danger! Women at Work
1943
5.5
Helen
I Escaped from the Gestapo
1943
0.0
Doris Lane
Calaboose
1943
🎬
0.0
dancer
Jealous
1942
0.0
Frau Obermueller, the Mayor's Wife
I Was a Criminal
1941
4.3
Frances 'Frankie' Ricks
Affairs of Cappy Ricks
1937
5.0
Doris Kimbell
Navy Blues
1937
Credits
Noisy Silencers
as (archive footage)
2024
0.0
Meet Corliss Archer
1954
0.0
Dragnet
as Anne Hogan
1947
6.0
Danger! Women at Work
as Pert
1943
6.0
I Escaped from the Gestapo
as Helen
1943
5.5
Calaboose
as Doris Lane
1943
0.0
🎬
Jealous
as dancer
1942
0.0
I Was a Criminal
as Frau Obermueller, the Mayor's Wife
1941
0.0
Affairs of Cappy Ricks
as Frances 'Frankie' Ricks
1937
4.3
Navy Blues
as Doris Kimbell
1937
5.0
🎬
Two's Company
as Julia Madison
1936
0.0
Killer at Large
as Linda Allen
1936
6.0
Three Married Men
as Jennie Mullins
1936
0.0
🎬
Once in a Million
as Suzanne
1936
5.0
The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss
as Frances Clayton
1936
6.9
Spendthrift
as Sally Barnaby
1936
5.0
Man on the Flying Trapeze
as Hope Wolfinger
1935
5.9
Charlie Chan in Paris
as Yvette Lamartine
1935
6.5
Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove
as Self
1934
5.5
College Rhythm
as Gloria Van Dayham
1934
4.7
Monte Carlo Nights
as Mary Vernon
1934
5.9
Ever Since Eve
as Elizabeth Vandergrift
1934
0.0
Fog
as Mary Fulton
1933
5.0
One Year Later
as Molly Collins
1933
6.3
Moonlight and Pretzels
as Sally Upton
1933
0.0
Song of the Eagle
as Elsa Kranzmeyer
1933
0.0
The World Gone Mad
as Diane Cromwell
1933
4.3
Girl Missing
as June Dale
1933
5.1
Hard to Handle
as Ruth Waters
1933
6.9
Manhattan Tower
as Mary Harper
1932
5.9
The Unwritten Law
as Ruth Evans
1932
0.0
Blessed Event
as Gladys Price
1932
6.5
It's Tough to Be Famous
as Janet Porter McClenahan
1932
5.7
🎬
Hollywood Halfbacks
1931
0.0
The Runaround
as Evelyn
1931
7.0
Homicide Squad
as Millie
1931
0.0
Gun Smoke
as Sue Vancey
1931
5.5
The Front Page
as Peggy Grant
1931
6.5
Captain Applejack
as Poppy Faire
1931
6.5
The Royal Family of Broadway
as Gwen Cavendish
1930
5.8
Only Saps Work
as Barbara Tanner
1930
5.5
The Social Lion
as Cynthia Brown
1930
6.0
Paramount on Parade
as Sweetheart (Dream Girl)
1930
6.1
The Light of Western Stars
as Ruth Hammond
1930
2.8
Only the Brave
as Barbara Calhoun
1930
0.0
Burning Up
as Ruth Morgan
1930
3.5
The Kibitzer
as Josie Lazarus
1930
4.7
The Marriage Playground
as Judith Wheater
1929
5.8
The Virginian
as Molly Stark Wood
1929
5.8
The River of Romance
as Lucy Jeffers
1929
0.0
The Man I Love
as Celia Fields
1929
4.0
Black Waters
as Eunice
1929
0.0
Someone to Love
as Joan Kendricks
1928
0.0
Varsity
as Fay
1928
0.0
Forgotten Faces
as Alice Deane
1928
0.0
The Big Killing
as Mary Beagle - Old Man Beagle's Daughter
1928
0.0
Harold Teen
as Lillums Lovewell
1928
7.0
Partners in Crime
as Marie Burke, The Cigarette Girl
1928
2.0
Under the Tonto Rim
as Lucy Watson
1928
0.0
Two Flaming Youths
as Mary Gilfoil
1927
0.0
Shanghai Bound
as Sheila
1927
0.0
Man Power
as Alice Stoddard
1927
0.0
Running Wild
as Elizabeth Finch
1927
5.8
Knockout Reilly
as Mary Malone
1927
0.0
Stepping Along
as Molly Taylor
1926
0.0
The Prince of Tempters
as Mary
1926
0.0
Beau Geste
as Isabel Rivers
1926
6.0
More Pay - Less Work
as Betty Ricks
1926
0.0
Brown of Harvard
as Mary Abbot
1926
5.6
Paris at Midnight
as Victorine Tallefer
1926
9.0
Behind the Front
as Betty Bartlett-Cooper
1926
6.0
The Enchanted Hill
as Hallie Purdy
1926
0.0
He's a Prince!
as Girl
1925
0.0
The Street of Forgotten Men
as Mary Vanhern
1925
6.0
The Air Mail
as Minnie Wade
1925
0.0
The Little French Girl
as Alix Vervier
1925
0.0
Peter Pan
as Wendy Darling
1924
7.0