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Wendy Barrie

Actor
Died February 2, 1978 (65 years)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Wendy Barrie (18 April 1912 – 2 February 1978) was a British actress who worked in British and American films.

Barrie was born in London to English parents. Her father, Francis Charles John Graigoe Jenkin KC (1883 – 1936), was an employee of Great Western (according to the 1901 census), who then joined the Royal Fusiliers in 1902. Her mother was Ellen McDonagh. Hollywood gave her a more exotic parentage with her father being a King's Counsel and her mother a Russian-Jewish actress who had performed in the world's first professional Yiddish-language theater troupe. She received her education at a convent school in England and a finishing school in Switzerland.

In 1932, Barrie made her screen debut in the film Threads, which was based upon a play. She went on to make a number of motion pictures for London Films under the Korda brothers, Alexander and Zoltan, the best known of which is 1933's The Private Life of Henry VIII, in which she portrayed Jane Seymour.

In 1934, she appeared in Freedom of the Seas and was contracted by Fox Film Corporation for a film directed by Scott Darling that was made in Britain. The following year, she moved to the United States and made her first Hollywood film for Fox opposite Spencer Tracy in the romantic comedy It's a Small World, followed by Under Your Spell with Lawrence Tibbett. Loaned to MGM, Barrie starred opposite James Stewart in the 1936 film Speed. In 1939 she starred with Richard Greene and Basil Rathbone in the 20th Century Fox version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and with Lucille Ball in RKO's Five Came Back. During 1939 and the early 1940s, Barrie made several of The Saint and The Falcon mystery films with George Sanders. She made her final motion picture in 1954.

With the dawn of television, in the late 1940s, Barrie turned to roles in that medium.

In 1956, she had a disc jockey program, the Wendy Barrie Show, on WMGM in New York City. She also hosted a widely syndicated radio interview show into the mid-1960s.

After appearances in more than 15 films in Britain and more than 30 in Hollywood, Barrie's contribution to the industry was recognized with a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street, near the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Her star was dedicated February 8, 1960.

Barrie became a naturalized American citizen in 1942. She was reportedly engaged to and had a daughter named Carolyn with the infamous gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and at one time was married to textile manufacturer David L. Meyer.

She died in Englewood, New Jersey, in 1978, aged 65, following a stroke that had left her debilitated for several years. She was buried in the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
Movies & Shows on Plex
  • Dead End
  • The Private Life of Henry VIII
  • Submarine Alert
Known For
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles
  • Dead End
  • Five Came Back
  • The Gay Falcon
  • The Saint Strikes Back
  • A Date with the Falcon
  • The Saint in Palm Springs
  • The Saint Takes Over
  • Submarine Alert
  • Love on a Bet
  • Wedding Rehearsal
  • Ticket to Paradise
  • For Love or Money

Filmography

1954
It Should Happen to You · as Guest Panelist
1950
Your Show of Shows (TV Series)
1948
Actors Studio (TV Series) · as Cast
1943
Submarine Alert · as Ann Patterson
1943
Forever and a Day · as Edith Trimble-Pomfret
1942
Eyes of the Underworld · as Betty Standing
1942
A Date with the Falcon · as Helen Reed
1941
The Gay Falcon · as Helen Reed
1941
Repent at Leisure · as Emily Baldwin
1940
The Saint in Palm Springs · as Elna Johnson
1940
Who Killed Aunt Maggie? · as Sally Ambler
1940
Men Against the Sky · as Kay Mercedes
1940
Cross-Country Romance · as Diane North
1940
The Saint Takes Over · as Ruth Summers
1940
Women in War · as Pamela Starr
1939
Day-Time Wife · as Kitty Fraser
1939
The Witness Vanishes · as Joan Marplay
1939
Five Came Back · as Alice Melbourne
1939
The Hound of the Baskervilles · as Beryl Stapleton
1939
The Saint Strikes Back · as Valerie 'val' Travers
1939
Pacific Liner · as Ann Grayson
1938
I Am the Law · as Frances 'frankie' Ballou
1937
1937
What Price Vengeance · as Polly Moore
1937
Wings Over Honolulu · as Lauralee Curtis
1936
Under Your Spell · as Cynthia Drexel
1936
Ticket to Paradise · as Jane Forbes
1936
Speed · as Jane Mitchell
1936
Love on a Bet · as Paula Gilbert
1935
A Feather in Her Hat · as Pauline Anders
1935
1935
It's a Small World · as Jane Dale
1934
Freedom of the Seas · as Phyllis Harcourt
1933
1933
For Love or Money · as Lilian Gilbert
1933
1933
It's a Boy · as Mary Bogle
1932
Where Is This Lady? · as Lucie Kleiner
1932
Wedding Rehearsal · as Lady Mary Rose Wroxbury

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