Barbara Read

Acting

Barbara Read

Born 1917-12-29 · Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada

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)

Acting credits

Make Way for Tomorrow poster
7.5

An elderly couple are forced to separate themselves from each other after their children refuse to take both into one house.

Make Way for Tomorrow

1937

Coroner Creek poster
6.2

A man is bent on taking revenge on those responsible for his fiancée's death.

Coroner Creek

1948

Death Valley poster
5.7

A dance hall girl is murdered and her body robbed of a quantity of gold obtained illegally. The killer flees into Death Valley and encounters the rightful owner of the gold and her sweetheart.

Death Valley

1946

The Spellbinder poster
6.3

Jed Marlowe is a brilliant, scheming, unscrupulous criminal lawyer whose specialty is defending criminal he knows is guilty but gets them off through loop-holes or bribery. Then his daughter, misled by her father’s courtroom performance, but unaware of his back-room tactics, marries the killer her father has just unjustly save from the electric chair. What’s a poor father to do?

The Spellbinder

1939

Ginger poster
9.0

The adventures of a boy and his dog in a small town.

Ginger

1947

Sorority House poster
7.3

A young girl begins to wonder if she really fits into the upper-class sorority she's trying to join.

Sorority House

1939

Three Smart Girls poster
6.5

The three Craig sisters – Penny, Kay, and Joan – go to New York to stop their divorced father from marrying gold digger Donna Lyons and reunite him with their mother.

Three Smart Girls

1936

Midnight Intruder poster
5.9

A former actor poses as the son of a wealthy man and gets involved in a murder in which the real son is the suspect.

Midnight Intruder

1938

Behind the Mask poster
5.5

Falsely accused of murdering a crooked newspaper reporter, suave detective Lamont Cranston -- aka the Shadow -- vows to track down the real killer.

Behind the Mask

1946

The Road Back poster
6.7

After the First World War a group of German soldiers try to readjust to civilian life. A sequel to 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.

The Road Back

1937

Too Many Women poster
5.8

Thanks to a fib intended to ward off an annoying real estate developer, a young bachelor finds himself engaged to three different women and pursued by a fourth, a gangster's sister.

Too Many Women

1942

The Mighty Treve poster
7.5

Story of a dog that is fanatically devoted to its master.

The Mighty Treve

1937

Key Witness poster
4.8

A man takes over the identity of a dead man while on the lam from a crime he didn't commit.

Key Witness

1947

Married and in Love poster
5.7

Two married couples become engulfed in a storm of emotional fury when Doctor Leslie Yates runs into writer Doris Wilding, his old college flame, whom he has not seen in ten years. After reminiscing about their past, Doris and Leslie make a dinner date with their respective spouses. On the eve of the Yates's dinner party, Leslie's wife Helen brings home a magazine article written by Doris, which sparks Leslie's memory of his separation from her.

Married and in Love

1940

The Missing Lady poster
4.8

While investigating the theft of a valuable jade statue known as "The Missing Lady" -- and the subsequent murder of an art dealer -- imperceptible sleuth Lamont Cranston aka the Shadow finds himself being blamed for the crime. It doesn't help the Shadow's claims of innocence when more bodies begin piling up. Good thing he knows exactly who's guilty among an increasingly smaller group of suspects.

The Missing Lady

1946

Curtain Call poster
7.3

Two theatrical producers plan to get even with a demanding actress by tricking her into starring in the worst play they can find.

Curtain Call

1940

The Man Who Cried Wolf poster
7.0

An actor plots "the perfect crime" by confessing to murders he didn't commit.

The Man Who Cried Wolf

1937

The Shadow Returns poster
5.8

The Shadow (Kane Richmond) cracks a case of missing jewels, murder and plastics.

The Shadow Returns

1946

Rubber Racketeers poster
5.5

Racketeer Gillin is paroled from prison and immediately goes to work trying to make an illegal buck from America's war effort. With rationing in effect the black market tire business is booming. Gillen's mob sets up car lots around town where they peddle stolen tires and "new" tires milled in the gangster's factories from cheap faulty materials. People begin to die in crashes as the defective tires fail. Bill Barry leads his fellow defense plant workers on a crusade to uncover the source of the black market rubber and bring the guilty to justice. Although clearly intended to warn the public about black market tire smuggling, Rubber Racketeers holds it own as a saga of mobsters versus an irate public.

Rubber Racketeers

1942

Merry Go Round of 1938 poster
7.5

Two screwy characters travel to Hollywood and cause mischief.

Merry Go Round of 1938

1937

The Crime of Doctor Hallet poster
10.0

Doctor in jungle works on cure for fever.

The Crime of Doctor Hallet

1938