Canadian singer and actress Deanna Durbin, who enjoyed a short but successful career as a Universal contract star from 1936 to 1948, has died. I hope their life together was more than just contented. Thats where I would place the Jeanette Gene marriage, for the most part. Per Cotten: Deanna had driven to the lot about eleven; I had come through the gate an hour later. However, the public continued to love her light musical comedies. For reprint rights |, Bookmark or read stories offline - Download the TOI app. October 5, 2013 @ Her first movie was Every Sunday, in which she appeared alongside Judy Garland. Durbin walked away and never went back, and had a life, a real life, not one based on illusory fame, not one based on chasing the Bitch Goddess. deejay After moving to France in 1949 and settling outside Paris in the village of Neauphle-le-Chteau, Ms. Durbin devoted most of her time to keeping her home, cooking and raising her children. It was announced today that Deanna Durbin passed away, apparently a few days ago at age 91. (Getty Images) See more of : Deanna Durbin 04 / 6 No other details were given. Sign In Follow Go to TOI Home Photos Movies Celebs Web Stories Fashion Beauty Pageants Awards Events TV Sports News moreli moreli moreli Bollywood The actress was born Edna Mae Durbin in Winnipeg, Canada, but moved to California with her British-born parents when she was young. I do my own shopping, bring up my two children and sing an hour every day., According to her Wikipedia entry (at this writing), in her later years Durbin made it known that she did not like the Hollywood studio system. I also enjoyed the company of my fellow actors What I did find difficult was that this acquired maturity had to be hidden under the childlike personality my films and publicity projected on me.. Was Cotton the one love in her life? (Durbin was on her way to the divorce court during the filming of Hers to Hold. He used her as a beaming social worker to unhappy adults and such balm proved very efficacious just before and in the early years of the war.. Much to my surprise she wrote back to me. On April 30, 2013, a newsletter published by the Deanna Durbin Society reported that Durbin had died "in the past few days", quoting her son, Peter H. David, who thanked her admirers for respecting her privacy. Deanna had a long life so again, I hope she was happy in France. Mind you she married him in December 1950 and their son was born June 21st 1951. She was 91. Plus, its one thing to experience that as an adult but for the child stars who knew no other life to be has-beens so quickly with their entire adult lives ahead of themyou cant blame them for being bitter. So I really am grateful for your work in studying Deannas films and plan to re-watch her films with new interest. It is human nature to want to understand people we admire or care about. Nevertheless, I like you, have done some research on Deanna and came to the same conclusion regarding her shotgun wedding to Felix who even looks like a trapped man in their wedding picture. When she was a star she behaved like a star, and played ball with the publicity boys. ETimes is an Entertainment, TV & Lifestyle industry's promotional website and carries advertorials and native advertising. I was an actor. The Deanna Durbin Society's newsletter announced her death, quoting her son Peter H. David, said the New York Times. She argued with her fans that I am not the angelic creature that I seemingly represent. Nelson was far more blunt: I personify a wonderful, nostalgic era for so many people all they want from me is Shortnin Bread and Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life. Im trapped in their thirties! Both Jeanette and Nelson felt restrained by their screen images and were unable to break free in their personal lives. That Jackson would just leave Deanna six months after baby Jessicas birth and walk away from his without even fighting for joint custody well, that was very telling. Yes, I read about the incident with her and Joseph Cotton which Hedda Hopper published. But my own two personal favorites are Mad About Music and Spring Parade. She turned down numerous offers to perform again, including lead roles on Broadway and the London stage as well as aconcert appearances in Las Vegas. I looked up what kind of schedule Cotton was on with his films and he was pretty busy during 44 and early 45, but I am sure he could find time to get away when he wanted to. Her much older sister, Edith, insisted that her little sisters operatic abilities be nurtured after hearing her sing Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes. From her earnings as a teacher, Edith paid for Edna Maes singing lessons. Shes wearing flowers at her midriff although its very early in her pregnancy. You could see the fond childhood memories reflecting on their faces as the camera panned around. My wife retired from the film world when we married, David told The Times in 1982. Frankly, I dont know how Loretta Young could live with herself lying to her daughter Judy all those years about being her birth mother and also about Clark Gable being the father. (The film was produced by her second husband.). Her MGM career ended suddenly, however, when Schumann-Heink, who was to play herself as an adult in the movie about her life, died at 75 and the studio did not pick up Ms. Durbins option. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6. Embarrassment expanded to humiliation, and humiliation exploded into anger. Her popularity peaked by her late teens and by her mid-20s Durbin had left Hollywood forever, made wealthy by her relatively brief career. Mr. David once said that he and Ms. Durbin had made a deal that he would protect her from spiders, mosquitoes and reporters., Ms. Durbin, who gave almost no interviews after she left Hollywood, did send reporters a letter in 1958 that read in part: I was a typical 13-year-old American girl. But because of his past history of becoming involved with (and usually marrying) women much younger than himself, the court ordered him to pay child support. As far as I could see, or would let myself see, she was a completely happy wife and a very busy hostess. She had a lovely voice and her parents, then living in Los Angeles, trained her with a vocal coach. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. In 1938 there was a nationwide search to choose the young man who would give Ms. Durbin her first screen kiss in the movie First Love. (Robert Stack was the actor chosen.) She didnt want/need the money but she sure would have appreciated developing a close bond with her blood-relative brother. It would ruin the image, she told Robert Shipman in Films and Filming magazine in 1983. Third husband of singer and actress Deanna Durbin. Durbin made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and . I, too, always wondered how Loretta could keep that secret. Below is a picture taken on the wedding day of Deanna Durbin and Felix Jackson. maceddy To get back at Hopper for the sex scandal smear, Joseph Cotten allegedly pulled the chair out from her at a party as she was sitting down, causing her to fall flat on her butt.. In 1980, she submitted a recent photo of herself to Life . In addition to Peter, her son from her marriage to David, Ms. Durbin had a daughter, Jessica, from her second marriage. Golden Age Of Hollywood. Back home, her sister, sisters husband and their little boy were living with her in her house and had been since Vaughn went off to the Navy. That is really not so different from her characters. I loved your article about Deanna Durbin. Durbins survivors include her daughter, Jessica Jackson, and her son, Peter H. David. (Getty Images), Capitalising on her fame, Universal cast Durbin in a series of musical movies including "That Certain Age" and "Mad About Music" which made the actress with the sweet soprano voice into one of Hollywood's most popular stars. The French born David married Deanna in 1950 and Deanna chose to leave America and settle in France. She made five more films after that, ending her career in 1948 with For the Love of Mary, in which she portrayed a White House switchboard operator juggling the attentions of three men. Remembering sisters Jeanette MacDonald and Blossom Rock today. The following year Deanna married producer/director Charles David (he directed her in 1945's excellent Lady on a Train) and moved with him to France. I am also a devoted fan of Jeanette and Nelson. The camera captured a palpable chemistry between Deanna Durbin and leading man Joseph Cotten. He continues: Of all the Durbin films, this is the one where she registers the most chemistry with her leading man. 1930s child star Deanna Durbin has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter.She was 91. 1930s child star Deanna Durbin has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She was given a special miniature 1938 Academy Award for her significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth.. Strange because I am 68 years old and watched all the old movies on TV when I was growing up, but then Universal held up Deannas movies for so long that I had only seen Lady on A Train, which I loved. Deanna Durbin, who as a plucky child movie star with a sweet soprano voice charmed American audiences during the Depression and saved Universal Pictures from bankruptcy before she vanished from. Durbin's death was initially reported by her son, Peter H. David, in the Deanna Durbin Society newsletter. joanne tew Deanna Durbin, the singing starlet with the bubbly personality and the jewel-tone voice whose enormously popular movies were widely credited with saving Universal Pictures from bankruptcy. Could this also be a little inner guilt because she was still seeing Cotton, a married man? No other details were given. (Getty Images), /celebs/international/reclusive-hollywood-actress-deanna-durbin-dies-at-91/eventshow/19820949.cms, The actress was born Edna Mae Durbin in Winnipeg, Canada, but moved to California with her British-born parents when she was young. In movie after movie Ms. Durbins character found a way to help the struggling grown-ups in her life: reuniting her divorced parents, persuading the conductor Leopold Stokowski to help her out-of-work musician father, cajoling a stranger into becoming her father for a day. It is to return that love that she has given her first interview in so many years. He called the arm withered. I later read press reports stating that she broke her arm at a young age and it healed incorrectly. But if accurate, it might explain why Deanna might have married her longtime friend Felix Jackson who stuck around for the birth of a child and then deserted her. Catebar44 mentions Something in the Wind Durbin never strikes me as being unhappy at all, but seems to be enjoying herself, and is particularly good in the scene at the couturiers salon, especially when she essays You wanna keep your baby looking right much less stiff than she often was in a musical set-piece. Edna Mae Durbin was born Dec. 4, 1921, (some sources say 1922) in Winnipeg, Canada, but the family soon moved to Southern California because of her fathers health. Hmm. The actress had remained out of the public eye ever since. In that 1937 musical comedy Durbin stars as Patricia Cardwell, whose father (Adolphe Menjou) is one of 100 musicians unable to find a job. She was one of the last really legitimate movie stars from the 1930s who was still with us, film historian Alan K. Rode told The Times on Wednesday. It was very easy. (Getty Images) Deanna always would say that she isnt the person she played on the screen, that she was another person apart from who she really was. I could see the wariness in Naughty Marietta and the closeness of Sweethearts and so forth. 3:15 pm. Maybe its no wonder, then, that she was relieved to give up her career and move to France with Charles David, with whom she found lasting happiness. A lover. In looking at the older photo of her from the 1980s, one can see that kindness in her. Ms. Durbin had remained determinedly out of public view since 1949, when she retired to a village in France with her third husband. Her son Peter H. David . Edna Mae Durbin was born on Dec. 4, 1921, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and grew up in Southern California, where she studied singing. I have no idea of whether the paternity claim related to me by Pat Hudson is the truth. She made her name playing the ideal teenage daughter in "Three Smart Girls" in 1936 and in its profitable follow-up the next year, "One Hundred Men and a Girl", which was credited with saving Universal studios from bankruptcy. But she gave it all up in 1949, at age 27, saying she had never been happy as a movie star. In 1947, she was the highest paid star in Hollywood, known for movies such as Three Smart Girls, Spring Parade and Mad about Music. She added, Working together all day as we did, we found we had no outside interests. Strange, isnt it, since they had a newborn daughter together? From 1936 to 1938, she also was singing with Eddie Cantors radio show, and her vocal coach urged a career in opera, but she opted instead for films. By the time she and David married, Durbin was completing a near total retreat from the public eye. Musical Film. I was sheltered, everyone thought for me, and at the age of 19 I stepped from that cloistered girlhood into a marriage that gave me the same sort of protection. I had met her during the making of Lydia about two years earlier. But there was only room for one girl talent at MGM, and Edna Mae was shuffled off the lot. Durbin passed away "a few days ago",. Fine. Read Less, Capitalising on her fame, Universal cast Durbin in a series of musical movies i Read More, Capitalising on her fame, Universal cast Durbin in a series of musical movies including "That Certain Age" and "Mad About Music" which made the actress with the sweet soprano voice into one of Hollywood's most popular stars. Everyone in her life had betrayed her even her sisters husband who mismanaged her money. She broke into the movies in 1936, aged 14, when she appeared in "Every Sunday" with Judy Garland, according to her biography on the IMDb film website. She lived a long life but still it is a shock to hear the news. In Nice Girl, she was experiencing first love and looked a little scared anticipating marriage. Dresses, dolls, ski suits and hats were marketed in her name. Whatever she means, we know she was a fantastic singer and a beautiful woman. (Getty Images). Take a look at that moment on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDHgg1GUNlo. 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