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Coroner Creek

as Abbie Miles (as Barbara Reed)

1948
Key Witness

as Martha Higby (as Barbara Reed)

1947
Behind the Mask

as Margo Lane (as Barbara Reed)

1946
The Shadow Returns

as Margo Lane (as Barbara Reed)

1946
Death Valley

as Mitzi

1946
Rubber Racketeers

as Mary Dale

1942
Married and in Love

as Helen Yates

1940
Sorority House

as Dotty Spencer

1939
The Spellbinder

as Janet Marlowe

1939
Make Way for Tomorrow

as Rhoda Cooper

1937
Merry Go Round of 1938

as Clarice Stockbridge

1937
Three Smart Girls

as Kay Craig

1936
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Barbara Read Barbara Read

Birthday

1917-12-29

Place of Birth

Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada

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)
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