Deanna Durbin
Age: N/A | From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Person Details
Birthday:
Aliases: Edna Mae Durbin
Gender: Female
Place of birth: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Homepage:
Movie Involvements: 13
TV Involvements: 0
Most Famous Work
Biography
Edna Mae Durbin (December 4, 1921 – April 17, 2013), known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer, who moved to the USA with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias. In 1946, Durbin was the second-highest-paid woman in the United States, just behind Bette Davis; her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years. Durbin was a child actress who made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios. She achieved success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), and It Started with Eve (1941). Her work was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy, and led to Durbin being awarded the Academy Juvenile Award in 1938. As she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her and attempted to move into sophisticated non-musical roles with film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945). These films, produced by frequent collaborator and second husband Felix Jackson, were not as successful; she continued in musical roles until her retirement. Upon her retirement and divorce from Jackson in 1949, Durbin married producer-director Charles Henri David and moved to a farmhouse near Paris. She withdrew from public life, granting only one interview on her career in 1983.
Most Famous Work
That's Entertainment!
(1974) (archive footage)
Los Angeles Plays Itself
(2003) Penny in Three Smart Girls (archive footage)
Christmas Holiday
(1944) Jackie Lamont / Abigail Martin
Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song
(2002) Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hers to Hold
(1943) Penelope “Penny” Craig
Can't Help Singing
(1944) Caroline Frost
A Friend Indeed
(1941) Self / Performer
The Shining Future
(1944) SelfActing
| Year | Character | Movie/Tv |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Penny in Three Smart Girls (archive footage) | |
| 2002 | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) | |
| 1982 | Self (archive footage) | |
| 1974 | (archive footage) | |
| 1948 | Mary Peppertree | |
| Rosie Moore | ||
| 1947 | Mary Collins | |
| Louise Ginglebusher | ||
| 1946 | Kim Walker | |
| 1945 | Nikki Collins / Margo Martin | |
| 1944 | Caroline Frost | |
| Jackie Lamont / Abigail Martin | ||
| Self | ||
| 1943 | Ann Carter | |
| Penelope “Penny” Craig | ||
| Self | ||
| Ruth Kirke Holliday | ||
| 1941 | Anne Terry | |
| Jane 'Pinky' Dana | ||
| Self / Performer | ||
| 1940 | Self / Performer | |
| Ilonka Tolnay | ||
| Self (archive footage) | ||
| Pamela Drake | ||
| 1939 | Constance (Connie) Harding | |
| Penny Craig | ||
| 1938 | Alice Fullerton | |
| Gloria Harkinson | ||
| 1937 | Patricia Cardwell | |
| 1936 | Penny Craig | |
| Edna | ||
| Year | Character | Movie/Tv |
