Marion Martin

Acting

Marion Martin

Born 1908-06-07 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marion Martin (born Marion Suplee, June 7, 1909 – August 13, 1985) was an American movie and stage actress. Martin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Bethlehem Steel executive. She became an actress after her family fortune was lost in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and appeared in the Broadway productions Lombardi Ltd. and Sweet Adeline. She made her film debut in She's My Lillie, I'm Her Willie and subsequently played minor roles, often as showgirls. Several of her early roles were in musicals and she achieved some success as a singer. By the end of the decade she had played leading female roles in several "B" pictures, playing one of her most notable roles in James Whale's Sinners in Paradise (1938). Despite her success she was often cast in minor roles in more widely seen films such as His Girl Friday (1940). The majority of her roles were in comedies but she also appeared in dramas such as Boom Town (1940) in which she played a dance hall singer who is briefly romanced by Clark Gable. She played secondary roles in three Lupe Vélez "Mexican Spitfire" films in the early 1940s, and was a comic foil for the Marx Brothers in The Big Store, where the back of her skirt is cut away by Harpo. She played a ghost in Gildersleeve's Ghost, and was the subject of a legendary fistfight between Gildersleeve star Harold Peary and Warner Bros studio mogul Bud Stevens at the Mocambo nightclub in 1943. Her more substantial roles included Alice Angel, a dizzy showgirl, in the murder mystery Lady of Burlesque with Barbara Stanwyck and Angel on My Shoulder. She also appeared in The Big Street with Lucille Ball, in the western The Woman of the Town with Claire Trevor and in The Great Mike at PRC in 1944. By the late 1940s, her roles were often minor. Three Stooges fans will remember her as western cowgirl Gladys in Merry Mavericks. She played "Belle Farnol" in a 1950 episode of The Lone Ranger entitled "Pardon for Curley". Shortly afterward, she made her final film appearance in 1952. Married to a physicist, Martin retired, and although she expressed the desire to return to show business, suitable roles were not offered to her. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures, at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. She died in 1985 in Santa Monica, California, and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Acting credits

His Girl Friday poster
7.4

Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit and settle down with a new beau, but, as Walter knows, she has a weakness: she can’t resist a juicy scoop.

His Girl Friday

1940

The Man in the Iron Mask poster
7.1

Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the kingdom while his twin brother, Philippe, remains imprisoned, the Musketeers reunite to abduct Louis and replace him with Philippe.

The Man in the Iron Mask

1939

Should Husbands Marry? poster
4.7

Hugh's loudmouth pal crashes a dinner party Hugh is throwing for his boss.

Should Husbands Marry?

1947

Lady of Burlesque poster
5.4

After one member of their group is murdered, the performers at a burlesque house must work together to find out who the killer is before they strike again.

Lady of Burlesque

1943

Angel on My Shoulder poster
6.5

The Devil arranges for a deceased gangster to return to Earth as a well-respected judge to make up for his previous life.

Angel on My Shoulder

1946

The Big Store poster
6.3

A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department store, from the store's crooked manager.

The Big Store

1941

Black Angel poster
6.1

A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin, team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife.

Black Angel

1946

Boom Town poster
7.0

Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a twenty year period both love the same woman. McMasters and Sand come to oil towns to get rich. Betsy comes West intending to marry Sand but marries McMasters instead. Getting rich and losing it all teaches McMasters and Sand the value of personal ties.

Boom Town

1940

Tales of Manhattan poster
6.4

Ten screenwriters collaborated on this series of tales concerning the effect a tailcoat cursed by its tailor has on those who wear it. The video release features a W.C. Fields segment not included in the original theatrical release.

Tales of Manhattan

1942

Key to the City poster
6.5

At a mayors convention in San Francisco, ex-longshoreman Steve Fisk meets Clarissa Standish from New England. Fisk is mayor of "Puget City" and is proud of his rough and tumble background. Standish is mayor of "Winona, Maine", and is equally proud of her education and dedication to the people who elected her. Thrown together, the two opposites attract and their escapades during the convention get each of them in hot water back home. Written by Ron Kerrigan

Key to the City

1950

Sergeant Madden poster
7.5

A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime.

Sergeant Madden

1939

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood poster
5.8

When two bumbling barbers act as agents for a talented but unknown singer, they stage a phony murder in order to get him a plum role.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood

1945

Invisible Stripes poster
6.2

A gangster is unable to go straight after returning home from prison.

Invisible Stripes

1939

Blonde Inspiration poster
5.8

A writer of pulp Westerns cranks out more words than his editor and publisher want to pay for.

Blonde Inspiration

1941

Powder Town poster
4.4

Director Rowland V. Lee's wacky 1942 comedy, about an absent-minded scientist working on a secret formula at an explosives plant, stars Edmond O'Brien, Victor McLaglen, Dorothy Lovett, June Havoc, Eddie Foy Jr., Marion Martin and Mary Gordon.

Powder Town

1942

Merry Mavericks poster
6.0

Set in the old west, the stooges are mistaken for lawmen and manage to capture a gang of crooks. The boys then get the job of guarding some money in an old house reputed to be haunted by the ghost of an Indian Chief. The crooks escape and go after the money disguised as ghosts, but Shemp, disguised as the Indian Chief, manages to knock them out.

Merry Mavericks

1951

Fly By Night poster
6.7

Young intern Jeff Burton, impulsively offers a lift to an odd-looking gentlemen. It soon turns out that Jeff's passenger is an inventor has just escaped from a shady sanitarium, where he has been held prisoner by Nazi spies.

Fly By Night

1942

Ellery Queen, Master Detective poster
5.8

Famed detective and crime novelist Ellery Queen solves a case involving the suspicious death of a rich man whose inheritors fight over his estate.

Ellery Queen, Master Detective

1940

The Big Street poster
5.8

Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish nightclub singer who despises and uses him.

The Big Street

1942

It Happened Tomorrow poster
6.8

A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.

It Happened Tomorrow

1944

Nobody Lives Forever poster
6.4

A con artist falls for the rich widow he's trying to fleece.

Nobody Lives Forever

1946

Lighthouse poster
4.6

Two men and a woman form a triangle confined by a lighthouse.

Lighthouse

1947

Invitation to Happiness poster
7.0

An egotistical boxer romances a rich backer's daughter.

Invitation to Happiness

1939

They Got Me Covered poster
6.2

Bumbling reporter Robert Kittredge has been fired after bungling his latest assignment. His career isn't all he's botched up: his girlfriend Chris is tired of waiting for him to marry her. When he gets a hot tip on some Nazi spies operating in Washington, D.C., he convinces Chris to help him break the story so he can get his job back. The pair soon find themselves in several awkward predicaments as they track the criminals down in a night club, a burlesque show, and face a final showdown at a beauty salon.

They Got Me Covered

1943