| ~Mary Brian~ Born: February 17, 1906 in Corsicana, Texas, USA Died: December 30, 2002 in Del Mar, California, USA |
| ~Silent Filmography~ |
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| ~The Los Angeles Times~ January 4, 2003 |
sound films.
Brian appeared in more than 70 films from 1924 to 1947. She costarred with such leading men of the
era as Gary Cooper, Cary Grant and James Cagney, and at different times during the 1930s was
engaged to Grant and Dick Powell.
She played Wendy in the first screen version — a silent — of "Peter Pan," released by Paramount in
1924. She also portrayed Molly Wood opposite Cooper in "The Virginian," the first major western
film with sound, produced in 1929.
In Hollywood, the petite actress with dark brown curls ringing her face was known as "that nice,
sweet Mary Brian," in part because of her solid professionalism.
"As a leading lady, she was reliable, competent — someone you knew would never give you any
trouble on the set," said Anthony Slide, a film historian and longtime friend, who called Brian one of
the greatest ingenues of the silent and early sound era. "She was very natural in life and on screen."
She was born Louise Dantzler in Corsicana, Texas, in 1906. Raised by her mother, she moved with
her family in the early 1920s to Long Beach, where she entered a beauty contest.
She did not win the contest, but caught the attention of Paramount, which was looking for children
to cast in director Herbert Brenon's movie of "Peter Pan," based on the J.M. Barrie classic about the
boy who never wanted to grow up.
She was 18 when she was cast as Wendy, but Paramount executives trimmed two years from her age
because they thought 18 sounded too old to play the girl who befriends Peter. After that, Slide
recalled, she did not bother to correct it, preferring to tell inquisitive reporters that her age was
"negotiable."
Paramount gave her the stage name Mary Brian and kept her under contract from 1924 to 1932. She
was featured in more than 40 films for the studio, playing juvenile leads and costarring roles in such
films as "Beau Geste" and "Brown of Harvard."
She costarred with Fredric March and Ina Claire in director George Cukor's 1930 classic "The Royal
Family of Broadway," and with Adolph Menjou and Pat O'Brien in the first film version of "The Front
Page," directed by Lewis Milestone and released in 1931.
In an interview with film historian Leonard Maltin, Brian recalled how she and her fellow actors
reacted to the advent of sound in pictures.
Buddy Rogers and Dick Arlen "and our whole little gang, we were all terrified because we kept
saying, 'Your voice doesn't sound like your voice.' And they were going to make tests of us....
Luckily, it turned out all right. But we were terrified."
Some studios, such as MGM, began to give actors elocution lessons. But Paramount "never did," she
told Maltin. "They just put us in there, and you sank or swam."
During World War II, Brian made three tours of Europe and the Pacific to help entertain U.S.
troops. She had a harrowing stint near the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge and toured the Enola
Gay after it dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
Seeing firsthand the cruelties of battle sapped her enthusiasm for making movies. Brian acted only
occasionally after the war, ending her film career with "Dragnet" in 1947, the year she married film
editor George Tomasini.
During the 1950s, she worked briefly in television, appearing in the CBS sitcom "Meet Corliss
Archer." But she focused on supporting Tomasini's career. Tomasini, who was known as Alfred
Hitchcock's favorite editor, died in 1964.
After her husband's death, Brian devoted herself to painting portraits, which decorated the walls of
her Studio City home. Her subjects included many of her Hollywood friends, such as Hitchcock,
comedian Red Skelton and gossip columnist Louella Parsons.
She died at age 96 of natural causes at a Del Mar, Calif., retirement home on Dec. 30, 2002.
— Elaine Woo for the Los Angeles Times Jan. 4, 2003
Brian appeared in more than 70 films from 1924 to 1947. She costarred with such leading men of the
era as Gary Cooper, Cary Grant and James Cagney, and at different times during the 1930s was
engaged to Grant and Dick Powell.
She played Wendy in the first screen version — a silent — of "Peter Pan," released by Paramount in
1924. She also portrayed Molly Wood opposite Cooper in "The Virginian," the first major western
film with sound, produced in 1929.
In Hollywood, the petite actress with dark brown curls ringing her face was known as "that nice,
sweet Mary Brian," in part because of her solid professionalism.
"As a leading lady, she was reliable, competent — someone you knew would never give you any
trouble on the set," said Anthony Slide, a film historian and longtime friend, who called Brian one of
the greatest ingenues of the silent and early sound era. "She was very natural in life and on screen."
She was born Louise Dantzler in Corsicana, Texas, in 1906. Raised by her mother, she moved with
her family in the early 1920s to Long Beach, where she entered a beauty contest.
She did not win the contest, but caught the attention of Paramount, which was looking for children
to cast in director Herbert Brenon's movie of "Peter Pan," based on the J.M. Barrie classic about the
boy who never wanted to grow up.
She was 18 when she was cast as Wendy, but Paramount executives trimmed two years from her age
because they thought 18 sounded too old to play the girl who befriends Peter. After that, Slide
recalled, she did not bother to correct it, preferring to tell inquisitive reporters that her age was
"negotiable."
Paramount gave her the stage name Mary Brian and kept her under contract from 1924 to 1932. She
was featured in more than 40 films for the studio, playing juvenile leads and costarring roles in such
films as "Beau Geste" and "Brown of Harvard."
She costarred with Fredric March and Ina Claire in director George Cukor's 1930 classic "The Royal
Family of Broadway," and with Adolph Menjou and Pat O'Brien in the first film version of "The Front
Page," directed by Lewis Milestone and released in 1931.
In an interview with film historian Leonard Maltin, Brian recalled how she and her fellow actors
reacted to the advent of sound in pictures.
Buddy Rogers and Dick Arlen "and our whole little gang, we were all terrified because we kept
saying, 'Your voice doesn't sound like your voice.' And they were going to make tests of us....
Luckily, it turned out all right. But we were terrified."
Some studios, such as MGM, began to give actors elocution lessons. But Paramount "never did," she
told Maltin. "They just put us in there, and you sank or swam."
During World War II, Brian made three tours of Europe and the Pacific to help entertain U.S.
troops. She had a harrowing stint near the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge and toured the Enola
Gay after it dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
Seeing firsthand the cruelties of battle sapped her enthusiasm for making movies. Brian acted only
occasionally after the war, ending her film career with "Dragnet" in 1947, the year she married film
editor George Tomasini.
During the 1950s, she worked briefly in television, appearing in the CBS sitcom "Meet Corliss
Archer." But she focused on supporting Tomasini's career. Tomasini, who was known as Alfred
Hitchcock's favorite editor, died in 1964.
After her husband's death, Brian devoted herself to painting portraits, which decorated the walls of
her Studio City home. Her subjects included many of her Hollywood friends, such as Hitchcock,
comedian Red Skelton and gossip columnist Louella Parsons.
She died at age 96 of natural causes at a Del Mar, Calif., retirement home on Dec. 30, 2002.
— Elaine Woo for the Los Angeles Times Jan. 4, 2003
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| . |
The Marriage Playground (1929) .... Judith Wheater
River of Romance (1929) .... Lucy Jeffers
The Man I Love (1929) .... Celia Fields
Black Waters (1929) .... Eunice
Someone to Love (1928) .... Joan Kendricks
Varsity (1928) .... Fay
Forgotten Faces (1928) .... Alice Deane
The Big Killing (1928) .... Old Man Beagle's Daughter, Mary Beagle
Harold Teen (1928) .... Lillums Lovewell
Partners in Crime (1928) .... Marie Burke, The Cigarette Girl
Under the Tonto Rim (1928) .... Lucy Watson
Two Flaming Youths (1927) .... Mary Gilfoil
Shanghai Bound (1927) .... Sheila
Man Power (1927) .... Alice Stoddard
Running Wild (1927/I) .... Elizabeth
Knockout Reilly (1927) .... Mary Malone
High Hat (1927) .... Millie
... aka Behind the Scenes
Her Father Said No (1927) .... Charlotte Hamilton
Stepping Along (1926) .... Molly Taylor
Prince of Tempters (1926) .... Mary
Beau Geste (1926) .... Isabel ... Movie Still Code: 925-X
More Pay - Less Work (1926) .... Betty Ricks
Brown of Harvard (1926) .... Mary Abbott
Paris at Midnight (1926) .... Victorine Tallefer
Behind the Front (1926) .... Betty Bartlett-Cooper ... Movie Still Code: 902-X
The Enchanted Hill (1926) .... Hallie Purdy
A Regular Fellow (1925) .... Girl ... Movie Still Code: 815-X
The Street of Forgotten Men (1925) .... Mary Vanhern
The Little French Girl (1925)
The Air Mail (1925) .... Minnie Wade
Peter Pan (1924) .... Wendy Moira Angela Darling
River of Romance (1929) .... Lucy Jeffers
The Man I Love (1929) .... Celia Fields
Black Waters (1929) .... Eunice
Someone to Love (1928) .... Joan Kendricks
Varsity (1928) .... Fay
Forgotten Faces (1928) .... Alice Deane
The Big Killing (1928) .... Old Man Beagle's Daughter, Mary Beagle
Harold Teen (1928) .... Lillums Lovewell
Partners in Crime (1928) .... Marie Burke, The Cigarette Girl
Under the Tonto Rim (1928) .... Lucy Watson
Two Flaming Youths (1927) .... Mary Gilfoil
Shanghai Bound (1927) .... Sheila
Man Power (1927) .... Alice Stoddard
Running Wild (1927/I) .... Elizabeth
Knockout Reilly (1927) .... Mary Malone
High Hat (1927) .... Millie
... aka Behind the Scenes
Her Father Said No (1927) .... Charlotte Hamilton
Stepping Along (1926) .... Molly Taylor
Prince of Tempters (1926) .... Mary
Beau Geste (1926) .... Isabel ... Movie Still Code: 925-X
More Pay - Less Work (1926) .... Betty Ricks
Brown of Harvard (1926) .... Mary Abbott
Paris at Midnight (1926) .... Victorine Tallefer
Behind the Front (1926) .... Betty Bartlett-Cooper ... Movie Still Code: 902-X
The Enchanted Hill (1926) .... Hallie Purdy
A Regular Fellow (1925) .... Girl ... Movie Still Code: 815-X
The Street of Forgotten Men (1925) .... Mary Vanhern
The Little French Girl (1925)
The Air Mail (1925) .... Minnie Wade
Peter Pan (1924) .... Wendy Moira Angela Darling
