Movie Stars: Durbin, Deana–Background, Career, Awards, Filmography

Deana Durbin Career Summary:

Edna Mae Durbin (December 4, 1921 – April 17, 2013), known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer, who moved to the USA with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s.

With technical skill and vocal range of legitimate lyric soprano, she performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias.

Durbin was a child actress who made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios.

She achieved success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), and It Started with Eve (1941). Her work was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy, and led to Durbin being awarded the Academy Juvenile Award in 1938.

As she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her and attempted to move into sophisticated non-musical roles with film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945). These films, produced by frequent collaborator and second husband Felix Jackson, were not as successful; she continued in musical roles until her retirement. Upon her retirement and divorce from Jackson in 1949, Durbin married producer-director Charles Henri David and moved to a farmhouse near Paris. She withdrew from public life, granting only one interview on her career in 1983.

Edna Mae Durbin was born on December 4, 1921, at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, the younger daughter of James Allen Durbin and his wife Ada (née Read) Durbin, who were originally from Chester, England. She had one older sister, Edith (later Mrs. Heckman, born in England, died in California). When she was an infant, her family moved from Winnipeg to Southern California, and the family became United States citizens in 1923. At the age of one, Edna Mae was singing children’s songs.[citation needed] By the time she was 10, her parents recognized that she had definite talent and enrolled her in voice lessons at the Ralph Thomas Academy. Durbin soon became Thomas’s prize pupil, and he showcased her talent at various local clubs and churches.

Career and life
1935–1941: Early career
In early 1935, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was planning a biographical film on the life of opera star Ernestine Schumann-Heink and was having difficulty finding an actress to play the young opera singer. MGM casting director Rufus LeMaire heard about a talented young soloist performing with the Ralph Thomas Academy and called her in for an audition. Durbin sang “Il Bacio” for the studio’s vocal coach, who was stunned by her “mature soprano” voice. She sang the number again for Louis B. Mayer, who signed her to a six-month contract. She made her first film appearance in the short Every Sunday (1936) with Judy Garland, another teenage singer-actress whose career would rival Durbin’s. The film was intended as a demonstration of their talent as performers as studio executives had questioned the wisdom of casting two female singers together. Louis B. Mayer decided to sign both, but by then, Durbin’s contract option had lapsed.

Universal Pictures producer Joe Pasternak wished to borrow Garland from MGM, but she was unavailable. When Pasternak learned that Durbin was no longer with MGM, he instead cast her in the film.

At 14 years old, Durbin signed with Universal, giving her the professional name Deanna. Her first feature-length film, Three Smart Girls (1936), was a success and established Durbin as a young star. With Pasternak producing for Universal, Durbin starred in a succession of successful musical films, including One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), Mad About Music (1938), That Certain Age (1938), Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), and First Love (1939)—most of which were directed by Henry Koster.

Durbin also continued to pursue singing projects. In 1936, she auditioned to provide the vocals for Snow White in Disney’s animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but was rejected by Walt Disney, who said the 15-year-old Durbin’s voice was “too old” for the part. That same year, Cesar Sturani, the general music secretary of the Metropolitan Opera, offered Durbin an audition. She turned down his offer because she felt she needed more singing lessons. Andrés de Segurola, who was the vocal coach working with Universal Studios—himself a former Metropolitan Opera singer—believed that Durbin was a potential opera star. De Segurola was commissioned to advise the Metropolitan Opera on her progress. Also in 1936, Durbin began a radio collaboration with Eddie Cantor which lasted until 1938, when her heavy workload for Universal forced her to quit her weekly appearances.

The success of Durbin’s films was reported to have saved Universal from bankruptcy.[2] In 1938, she received an Academy Juvenile Award with Mickey Rooney. Producer Joe Pasternak said:
Deanna’s genius had to be unfolded, but it was hers and hers alone, always has been, always will be, and no one can take credit for discovering her. You can’t hide that kind of light under a bushel. You just can’t, no matter how hard you try!

Durbin continued her success with It’s a Date (1940), Spring Parade (1940), and Nice Girl? (1941).

In 1941, Durbin starred in It Started with Eve (1941), her last film with Pasternak and director Henry Koster. Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM.

Universal announced Durbin was to star in They Lived Alone, scheduled to be directed by Koster. However, Durbin was unhappy by the role, and that Universal had not given support to the career of her first husband assistant director Vaughn Paul, whom she had married in April 1941. Durbin turned down the role, and was suspended by the studio from October 16, 1941, to early February 1942.

In late January 1942, Durbin and Universal settled their differences, with the studio conceding to Durbin the approval of her directors, stories, and songs.

Wishing to move into more sophisticated material, They Lived Alone was retooled into The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943), the World War II story of refugee children from China. The film was initially conceived without musical numbers, but Durbin finally relented to Universal’s demand to include some. Durbin was also able to retool her second sequel to Three Smart Girls from Three Smart Girls Join Up to Hers to Hold (1943), revolving solely around her character. Her co-star Joseph Cotten would later speak highly of her integrity and character.

Durbin also dabbled in other genres, such as the romantic comedy His Butler’s Sister (1943) and the musical Western Can’t Help Singing (1944), her only Technicolor film, which was produced on location in southern Utah and co-starred Robert Paige. The film featured some of the last melodies written by Jerome Kern.

Durbin continued her push to establish herself as a more dramatic actress with the film noir Christmas Holiday (1944), directed by Robert Siodmak and co-starring Gene Kelly. Siodmark praised Durbin’s acting skills, but later recalled she was difficult as “she wanted to play a new part but flinched from looking like a tramp: she always wanted to look like nice wholesome Deanna Durbin pretending to be a tramp.” Although the film received mixed reviews, Durbin later called it her “only really good film”. The whodunit Lady on a Train (1945) also received mixed critical reviews.

Most of these films had been produced by Felix Jackson, whom she married in August 1945; they welcomed their daughter, Jessica Louise, in February 1946.

1946–1949: Decline and Retirement

Durbin and cinematographer William H. Daniels on set of For the Love of Mary (1948)
In 1946, Durbin was the second-highest-paid woman in the United States, just behind Bette Davis,; her fan club ranked as the world’s largest during her active years. However, while her adult dramatic roles may have been more satisfying for Durbin, it was clear her fans preferred her in light musical confections.

In 1946, Universal merged with two other companies to create Universal-International.

The new regime discontinued much of Universal’s familiar product and scheduled only a few musicals. Jackson left Universal in November 1946; he also left Durbin in January 1947, although their separation was not announced until the following year.

Durbin’s final four pictures — I’ll Be Yours (1947), Something in the Wind (1947), Up in Central Park (1948), and For the Love of Mary (1948) — all reverted to her previous musical-comedy structure.

On August 22, 1948, Universal-International announced a lawsuit which sought to collect wages the studio had paid Durbin in advance. Durbin settled the complaint by agreeing to star in 3 more pictures, including one in Paris; this did not materialize before Durbin’s contract expired. She received a $200,000 ($2,300,000 in 2021) severance payment,

1949–2013: Retirement

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Unsatisfied by her career options, Durbin chose to retire and move to Paris. When her former producer Joe Pasternak tried to dissuade her, she told him, “I can’t run around being a Little Miss Fix-It who bursts into song—the highest-paid star with the poorest material.” In September 1949, Durbin filed for divorce from Jackson, which was finalized in November.

On December 21, 1950, Durbin married French director-producer Charles Henri David, who had previously directed her in Lady on a Train. Durbin and David raised a son, Peter David (born in June 1951), as well as Durbin’s daughter Jessica, on a farm outside of Paris. Durbin turned down several offers for a comeback, including a Broadway role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady; she later said, “I had my ticket for Paris in my pocket.”

In 1951, she was invited to play in London’s West End production of Kiss Me, Kate, and in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film version of the same in 1953, and Sigmund Romberg’s operetta The Student Prince in 1954.

In 1983, film historian David Shipman was granted a rare interview by Durbin. Durbin acknowledged her dislike of the Hollywood studio system, emphasizing that she never identified herself with the public image that the media created around her. She spoke of the Deanna “persona” in the third person, and considered the film character “Deanna Durbin” to be a byproduct of her youth and not her true identity.

In private life, Durbin had continued to use her given name, Edna; salary figures printed annually by the Hollywood trade publications listed the actress as “Edna Mae Durbin, player”. Also in the interview, she steadfastly asserted her right to privacy, something she maintained until the end of her life, declining to be profiled on websites.

Durbin’s husband of almost 50 years, Charles David, died in Paris on March 1, 1999.

On April 30, 2013, a newsletter published by the Deanna Durbin Society reported that Durbin had died “in the past few days”, quoting her son, Peter H. David, who thanked her admirers for respecting her privacy. No other details were given.

According to the Social Security Death Index (under the name Edna M. David), she died on April 17, 2013 in the 19th arrondissement of Paris.

Legacy
Deanna Durbin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine Street. She left her hand and footprints in front of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on February 7, 1938. Durbin was well known in Winnipeg, Manitoba (her place of birth), as “Winnipeg’s Golden Girl” (a reference to one of the city’s most famous landmarks, the statue Golden Boy atop the Manitoba Legislative Building).

Frank Tashlin’s Warner Bros. cartoon The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (1937) contains a turtle caricature of Deanna Durbin called “Deanna Terrapin”. An unnamed caricature of Durbin also appeared in the Warner Brother’s cartoon “Malibu Beach Party” (1940).

Durbin figures prominently in the 1963 Ray Bradbury short story “The Anthem Sprinters” (collected in The Machineries of Joy). Durbin’s singing is featured in Alistair MacLean’s 1955 novel HMS Ulysses, being broadcast over the wartime ship’s internal communication system. She was also referenced in Richard Brautigan’s novel Trout Fishing in America (1967), when the narrator claims to have seen one of her movies seven times, but cannot recall which one.

In song, Durbin’s name found its way into the introduction to a song written by satirical writer Tom Lehrer in 1965. Prior to singing “Whatever Became of Hubert?”, Lehrer said that Vice President Hubert Humphrey had been relegated to “those where-are-they-now columns: Whatever became of Deanna Durbin, and Hubert Humphrey, and so on.” She is also referenced in the Glenn Miller WWII novelty song “Peggy the Pin-up Girl”. Interestingly, the lyrics pair her name with her first co-star Judy Garland: “Even a voice that’s so disturbin’ / Like Judy Garland or Miss Durbin / Can’t compare to my pin-up queen”. In Philippe Mora’s film The Return of Captain Invincible (1983), Christopher Lee sings a song called “Name Your Poison”, written by Richard O’Brien and Richard Hartley, which has the line, “Think of young Deanna Durbin / And how she sang on rum and bourbon.”

Anne Frank was a fan of Durbin, and pasted two photos of her on the wall in the family’s hideout; the photos are still on the wall today.

Winston Churchill was also a fan of Durbin, screening her films “on celebratory wartime occasions”. Russian cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich cites Durbin in the mid-1980s as one of his most important musical influences, stating: “She helped me in my discovery of myself. You have no idea of the smelly old movie houses I patronized to see Deanna Durbin. I tried to create the very best in my music, to try to recreate, to approach her purity.”

Indian-Bengali film director Satyajit Ray, in his acceptance speech for an Oscar (Honorary – Lifetime Achievement) in 1992, mentioned Deanna Durbin as the only one of the three cinema personalities he recalled writing to when young, who had acknowledged his fan letter with a reply. The other two were Ginger Rogers and Billy Wilder.

Filmography
Short subjects
Year Title Role Notes

1936 Every Sunday Edna Co-starring Judy Garland
1939 For Auld Lang Syne: No. 4 Herself
1941 A Friend Indeed Herself For the American Red Cross
1943 Show Business at War Herself
1944 Road to Victory Herself A promotional film to support war bonds; also known as The Shining Future

Feature Films

Year Title Role Notes

1936 Three Smart Girls Penelope “Penny” Craig Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Henry Koster

1937 One Hundred Men and a Girl Patricia “Patsy” Cardwell Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Henry Koster

1938

Mad About Music Gloria Harkinson Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Norman Taurog

That Certain Age Alice Fullerton Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Edward Ludwig
1939 Three Smart Girls Grow Up Penelope “Penny” Craig Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Henry Koster
First Love Constance “Connie” Harding Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Henry Koster
1940 It’s a Date Pamela Drake Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by William A. Seiter
A short subject, Gems of Song, was excerpted from this feature in 1949.
Spring Parade Ilonka Tolnay Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Henry Koster
1941 Nice Girl? Jane “Pinky” Dana Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by William A. Seiter
It Started with Eve Anne Terry Produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Henry Koster
1943 The Amazing Mrs. Holliday Ruth Kirke Holliday Produced and directed by Bruce Manning (replacing Jean Renoir)
Hers to Hold Penelope “Penny” Craig Produced by Felix Jackson, directed by Frank Ryan
His Butler’s Sister Ann Carter Produced by Felix Jackson, directed by Frank Borzage
1944 Christmas Holiday Jackie Lamont / Abigail Martin Produced by Felix Jackson, directed by Robert Siodmak
Can’t Help Singing Caroline Frost Produced by Felix Jackson, directed by Frank Ryan
Durbin’s only film in Technicolor
1945 Lady on a Train Nikki Collins / Margo Martin Produced by Felix Jackson, directed by Charles David
1946 Because of Him Kim Walker Produced by Felix Jackson, directed by Richard Wallace
1947 I’ll Be Yours Louise Ginglebusher Produced by Felix Jackson, directed by William A Seiter
Something in the Wind Mary Collins Produced by Joseph Sistrom, directed by Irving Pichel
1948 Up in Central Park Rosie Moore Produced by Karl Tunberg, directed by William A. Seiter
For the Love of Mary Mary Peppertree (final film role) Produced by Robert Arthur directed by Frederick de Cordova

Box office ranking

Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll

1938 – 15th (US), 6th (UK)
1939 – 12th (US), 1st (UK)
1940 – 12th (US), 2nd (UK)
1941 – 24th (US), 2nd (UK)
1942 – 4th (UK)
1944 – 25th (US), 4th (UK)

Between December 15, 1936, and July 22, 1947, Deanna Durbin recorded 50 tunes for Decca Records. While often re-creating her movie songs for commercial release, Durbin also covered independent standards, like “Kiss Me Again”, “My Hero”, “Annie Laurie”, “Poor Butterfly”, “Love’s Old Sweet Song” and “God Bless America”.

“Alice Blue Gown”
“Alleluia” (from 100 Men and a Girl)
“Always” (from Christmas Holiday)
“Adeste Fideles”
“Amapola” (from First Love)
“Annie Laurie”
“Any Moment Now” (from Can’t Help Singing)
“Ave Maria” (from Mad About Music)
“Ave Maria” (from It’s a Date)
“Be a Good Scout” (from That Certain Age)
“Because” (from Three Smart Girls Grow Up)
“Begin the Beguine” (from Hers to Hold)
“Beneath the Lights of Home” (from Nice Girl)
“The Blue Danube” (from Spring Parade)
“Brahms’ Lullaby” (from I’ll Be Yours)
“Brindisi” (“Libiamo ne’ lieti calici)” (from 100 Men and a Girl)
“Californ-I-Ay”
“Can’t Help Singing” (from Can’t Help Singing)
“Carmena Waltz”
“Chapel Bells” (from Mad About Music)
“Cielito Lindo” (“Beautiful Heaven)”
“Ciribiribin”
“Clavelitos” (from It Started with Eve)
“Danny Boy” (from Because of Him)
“Embraceable You”
“Every Sunday” (with Judy Garland)
“Filles de Cadiz” (“The Maids of Cadiz”) (from That Certain Age)
“Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?” (from Lady on a Train)
“God Bless America”
“Goin’ Home” (from It Started With Eve)
“Goodbye” (from Because of Him)
“Granada” (from I’ll Be Yours)
“A Heart That’s Free” (from 100 Men and a Girl)
“Home! Sweet Home!” (from First Love)
“Il Bacio” (“The Kiss”) (from Three Smart Girls)
“I’ll Follow My Sweet Heart”
“I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen” (from For the Love of Mary)
“I’ll See You In My Dreams”
“I Love to Whistle” (from Mad About Music)
“(I’m) Happy Go Lucky and Free” (from Something in the Wind)
“(I’m) Happy Go Lucky and Free” (from Something in the Wind)
“In the Spirit of the Moment” (from His Butler’s Sister)
“Italian Street Song”
“It’s a Big Wide Wonderful World” (from For the Love of Mary)
“It’s Dreamtime” (from I’ll Be Yours)
“It’s Foolish But It’s Fun” (from Spring Parade)
“It’s Only Love” (from Something In The Wind)
“It’s Raining Sunbeams” (from 100 Men and a Girl)
“Invitation to the Dance” (from Three Smart Girls Grow Up)
“Je Veux Vivre” ( Roméo et Juliette) (from That Certain Age)
“Kiss Me Again”
“La Estrellita” (“Little Star)”
“Largo Al Factotum” (The Barber of Seville) (from For the Love of Mary)
“The Last Rose of Summer” (from Three Smart Girls Grow Up)
“Loch Lomond” (from It’s a Date)
“Love at Last” (from Nice Girl)
“Love is All” (from It’s a Date)
“Lover” (from Because of Him)
“Love’s Old Sweet Song”
“Make Believe”
“Mighty Like a Rose” (from The Amazing Mrs. Halliday”)
“Molly Malone”
“More and More” (from Can’t Help Singing)
“More and More/Can’t Help Singing” (from Can’t Help Singing)
“Musetta’s Waltz” (La bohème) (from It’s a Date)
“My Heart is Singing” (from Three Smart Girls Grow Up)
“My Hero”
“My Own” (from That Certain Age)
“Nessun dorma” (Turandot) (from His Butler’s Sister)
“Never in a Million Years/ Make Believe”
“Night and Day” (from Lady on a Train)
“O Come, All Ye Faithful”
“Old Folks at Home” (from Nice Girl)
“The Old Refrain” (from The Amazing Mrs. Holiday)
“On Moonlight Bay” (from For the Love of Mary)
“One Fine Day” (Madama Butterfly) (from First Love)
“One Night of Love”
“Pace, Pace, Mio Dio” (La forza del destino) (from Up In Central Park)
“Pale Hands I Loved” (Kashmiri Song) (from Hers to Hold)
“Perhaps” (from Nice Girl)
“Poor Butterfly”
“The Prince”
“Russian Medley” (from His Butler’s Sister)
“Sari Waltz (Love’s Own Sweet Song)” (from I’ll Be Yours)
“Say a Pray’r for the Boys Over There” (from Hers to Hold)
“Seal It With a Kiss”
“Seguidilla (Carmen) (from Hers to Hold)
“Serenade to the Stars” (from Mad About Music)
“Silent Night” (from Lady on a Train)
“Someone to Care for Me” (from Three Smart Girls)
“Something in the Wind” (from Something in the Wind)
“Spring in My Heart” (from First Love)
“Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year” (from Christmas Holiday)
“Swanee – Old Folks at Home” (from Nice Girl)
“Summertime” (Porgy and Bess)
“Sweetheart”
“Thank You America” (from Nice Girl)
“There’ll Always Be An England” (from Nice Girl)
“The Turntable Song” (from Something in the Wind)
“Two Guitars” (from His Butler’s Sister)
“Two Hearts”
“Un bel dì vedremo” (Madama Butterfly) (from First Love)
“Viennese Waltz” (from For The Love Of Mary)
“Vissi d’arte (Tosca) (from The Amazing Mrs. Holiday)
“Waltzing in the Clouds” (from Spring Parade)
“When April Sings” (from Spring Parade)
“When I Sing” (from It Started with Eve)
“When the Roses Bloom Again”
“When You’re Away” (from His Butler’s Sister)
“You Wanna Keep Your Baby Looking Nice, Don’t You” (from Something in the Wind)
“You’re as Pretty as a Picture” (from That Certain Age)
Radio appearances
1943 Screen Guild Theatre Shadow Of A Doubt Ref.
1938 Lux Radio Theatre Mad About Music [34]
1943 The Jack Benny Program
1948 Screen Guild Players Up in Central Park [35]