Known For
Acting
Born
Dec 29, 1917
Died
Dec 11, 1963
Place of Birth
Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada
Credits
22 titles
Barbara Read
Biography
Born in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, Barbara Read was the daughter of a contractor. Under contract to Columbia, she was paid but never used for a single picture. She quit in disgust. She was later signed by Universal and was cast as one of the Craig sisters inThree Smart Girls (1936) along with Deanna Durbin and Nan Grey. This was Barbara's first and best remembered film. Her career was over by the time she married actor William Talman, of "Perry Mason" fame, in 1953. The couple had two children: Barbara ("Barbie") and William III ("Bobo"). The marriage was turbulent as both she and Talman suffered from alcohol problems. They divorced in 1960 with Barbara gaining custody of the children. Talman took over custody a year later when Barbara's alcoholism and mental/emotional problems became overbearing. Committed suicide at her Laguna Beach, California home when she turned on the gas jets of her stove and sealed the doors and windows. She left a suicide note blaming "ill health". Barbara Read bore a powerful likeness to Deanna Durbin, whose sister she was portraying in "Three Smart Girls". Date of Death: 11 December 1963, Laguna Beach, California (suicide)
Known For
Filmography
Santabear's First Christmas
Story
Coroner Creek
Abbie Miles (as Barbara Reed)
Key Witness
Martha Higby (as Barbara Reed)
Ginger
Peggy Sullivan (as Barbara Reed)
The Missing Lady
Margo Lane
Death Valley
Mitzi
Behind the Mask
Margo Lane
The Shadow Returns
Margo Lane
Rubber Racketeers
Mary Dale
Too Many Women
Linda Pearson
Curtain Call
Helen Middleton
Married and in Love
Helen Yates
The Spellbinder
Janet Marlowe
Sorority House
Dotty Spencer
The Crime of Doctor Hallet
Claire Saunders
Midnight Intruder
Patricia Hammond
Merry Go Round of 1938
Clarice Stockbridge
The Man Who Cried Wolf
Nan
The Road Back
Lucy
Make Way for Tomorrow
Rhoda Cooper
The Mighty Treve
Aileen Fenno
Three Smart Girls
Kay Craig