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)

Most Known For

Death Valley

as Mitzi

Ginger

as Peggy Sullivan (as Barbara Reed)

Too Many Women

as Linda Pearson

Three Smart Girls

as Kay Craig

Make Way for Tomorrow

as Rhoda Cooper

The Road Back

as Lucy

Coroner Creek

as Abbie Miles (as Barbara Reed)

Sorority House

as Dotty Spencer

The Spellbinder

as Janet Marlowe

The Missing Lady

as Margo Lane

Merry Go Round of 1938

as Clarice Stockbridge

Midnight Intruder

as Patricia Hammond

The Mighty Treve

as Aileen Fenno

Curtain Call

as Helen Middleton

Rubber Racketeers

as Mary Dale

Behind the Mask

as Margo Lane

The Crime of Doctor Hallet

as Claire Saunders

The Man Who Cried Wolf

as Nan

The Shadow Returns

as Margo Lane

Married and in Love

as Helen Yates