Deanna Durbin

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Pin-up photo of Deanna Durbin for Yank, the Army Weekly (1945)

Deanna Durbin , actually Edna Mae Durbin (born December 4, 1921 in Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada , † April 17, 2013 in Neauphle-le-Château , France ), was a Canadian actress and singer in the 1930s and 1940s. During this time, Durbin was one of the most popular stars in Hollywood , but in 1948 she retired into private life.

Life

Deanna Durbin was born in Canada but grew up in California. Her talent for singing showed at an early age. She took lessons from Andrés de Segurola, among others, and when she was 13 she was placed at MGM studios by a talent scout. Durbin was supposed to play the young singer in a biographical film about Ernestine Schumann-Heink , but Schumann-Heink's death led to the work being stopped. In 1936 she starred with Judy Garland in the short film Every Sunday and Durbin moved to Universal Pictures in the middle of the year . The film producer Joe Pasternak was looking for a young actress for Three Sweet Girls , the American version of a Hungarian film. Durbin received a lot of publicity thanks to an appearance on Eddie Cantor's radio show, and her first film grossed over $ 1.6 million. Commercial success helped stabilize the financially troubled studio and Durbin played the role in two sequels : Three Smart Girls Grow Up from 1939, in which she sang one of her best-known songs with Because , and in 1943 in Hers to Hold . Her film 100 Men and a Girl brought her back together in 1937 with Henry Koster , the director of her first success, and producer Pasternak. The success of the simple story of a young girl whose vigor gave her unemployed father the chance to make music with Leopold Stokowski earned Durbin a new contract with a weekly fee of $ 3,000 and an additional bonus of $ 10,000 per film.

In 1938 Durbin received a special Juvenile Oscar together with Mickey Rooney because she was, as it was said, "on the screen the embodiment and the spirit of youth". At this point, she was under discussion for the lead role in The Wizard of Oz after Shirley Temple was unavailable. Durbin shot an average of two films a year, for which she also received glowing reviews in the serious press. Graham Greene , Bosley Crowther , film critic at the New York Times , as well as his colleague Frank Nugent were avowed supporters of Durbin. Expressions such as “spring fresh”, “bright as a daisy”, “delightful” and the like were very common in the reviews of her films. The actress looked at the vortex around her person very realistically. In an interview, she said she was a kind of daughter replacement for millions of disappointed parents and grandparents around the world. The publicity took on astonishing forms. When the studio began preparing Durbin for the move to adulthood with First Love in 1939, over 100 actors were reportedly tested to find the perfect boy to give Durbin his first movie kiss. In the end, it was Robert Stack , who in his memoir tells about all the excitement in an amusing way. The press reported about this event more intensely than about the beginning of the war in Europe.

Durbin had one of her greatest successes with Spring Parade , which integrated numerous melodies by Robert Stolz into the plot. When both Koster and Pasternak joined MGM in 1942, Durbin's star fell. Excursions into the dramatic subject were not accepted by the fans. Christmas Vacation , a film noir directed by Robert Siodmak , was a financial success, but Durbin failed to make the permanent move to more demanding roles. The actress then turned only light comedies, including The Song of the Golden West , her only film in Technicolor .

After two marriages entered into at a very young age, she married Charles David, the director of The Lady on the Train , in 1948 . At the same time, she withdrew from the film business. After the death of her husband in 1999, Durbin lived very secluded in France, where she died in April 2013 at the age of 91. Her death was not announced until April 30, 2013.

Retreat into private life

In one of the few interviews, she once explained the reasons for her withdrawal from the big screen at 27:

"Why did I withdraw? First of all, just take a look at my last four films and you will find that the stories I stood up for were mediocre ... almost impossible. Whenever I complained or asked for consent to the script or director, the studio refused. I was the highest paid star with the poorest material. Today I see my salary as compensation for dealing with such a complete lack of quality. "

Louis B. Mayer tried several times to sign Durbin for MGM. He offered her almost a million US dollars in the early 1950s to persuade her to make a comeback at the side of Mario Lanza . Durbin turned down the offer, as did the leading roles in the Broadway musicals My Fair Lady and Oklahoma! . Bing Crosby wanted the actress as a partner for Ein Yankee at the court of King Arthur and Top O 'the Morning . She also turned down these offers.

She gave her last interview in 1983. In it she said she was the only child star to be happy later in life.

Eponyms

The asteroid (4389) Durbin , discovered on April 1, 1976, has been named after her since 1994.

Filmography

Web links

Commons : Deanna Durbin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Why did I retire? For one thing, just take a look at my last four films and you'll appreciate that the stories I had to defend were mediocre… near impossible. Whenever I complained or asked for story or director approval, the studio refused. I was the highest paid star with the poorest material. Today, I consider my salary as damages for having to cope with such utter lack of quality. compare here: Deanna Durbin Interview on blogspot.de
  2. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 23351
personal data
SURNAME Durbin, Deanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Durbin, Edna Mae (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian actress and singer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada
DATE OF DEATH 17th April 2013
Place of death Neauphle-le-Château , France