Deanna Durbin

Biography

When you think of child stars from the golden age of Hollywood you may think of Shirley Temple, Judy Garland or Mickey Rooney. How about Deanna Durbin? A movie star so bright she couldn't be filmed in colour more than once.

Born Edna Mae in Winnipeg on December 4 in 1921, Durbin lived most of her life in Los Angeles. Her parents, who were originally British, moved there in 1922 because of her father's health. She was an average little girl growing up in the entertainment capital of the world. How could
Judy Garland at the keyboard and
Deanna Durbin in a publicity still from the short film, Every Sunday.
she not wind up in the business?

In 1932 she began taking singing lessons and originally hoped to have a career as an opera singer. Her extraordinary voice drew immediate attention and after a number of radio performances Deanna was introduced to agent Jack Sherrill who signed her immediately to Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Shortly after she was given an audition. It turned out to be a screen test in the form of a short film. Every Sunday, as it was titled, had a running time of a mere 11 minutes. It could have been the most important 11 minutes in MGM's history, but it didn't turn out that way. Paired with Deanna was another young singer with high hopes, Judy Garland. The story goes that when MGM boss Louis B. Mayer saw the results, he said something along the lines of "drop the fat one" meaning Judy Garland. But his command was somehow misunderstood and Deanna wasn't offered a contract at the legendary studio, Judy Garland was. She would go on to spend her entire career at MGM making some of the greatest films of that era including, of course, The Wizard of Oz just three years later.

But over at Universal Studios, things were very different. The studio had fallen on hard times and was only able to turn out low budget so-called B-movies. In one of their last acts of desperation, Universal had started to work on a film that would be titled Three Smart Girls. Producer Joe Pasternak happened to have seen the audition of Durbin and Garland and asked if Deanna was available. Offered a role, Deanna accepted a contract at Universal. She was just 14 years old, and was about to become a star. Three Smart Girls went on to become a major hit and immediately established the young singer as a money maker. A year later Deanna starred in One Hundred Men and a Girl. This too became a major hit and saved Universal from bankruptcy. Durbin was given the nickname, "the mortgage lifter".

Deanna was a huge star now, and worked regularly averaging two films a year. The year 1938 brought the premiere of Mad About Music at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, now Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. At the premiere Deanna had the honour of leaving her foot and hand prints in cement outside the theatre. A definite sign that she had made it in Hollywood. Another indication would be the honourary Academy Award she and a few other child actors, (including Mickey Rooney), received. The award was for their "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth." But Deanna was growing up. In 1939 she missed starring in the classic film The Wizard of Oz because she was too mature looking for the part. Her friend, Judy Garland eventually got the role. That same year at the tender age of 18 Deanna had her first on-screen kiss. It was with Robert Stack in First Love (1939), and it ripped war headlines off of the daily papers.

In 1940, Spring Parade was released and became Deanna’s 8th straight hit film. After filming Nice Girl? in 1941 Deanna married cinematographer Vaughn Paul. She was just 19 years old. In 1942 Paul enlisted in the Navy and being the supportive wife, Deanna toured Eastern army camps. In her 1943 film Hers to Hold, Deanna actually gave blood in one scene and she proudly supported the Red Cross both on and off the screen. That year, 1943, also saw Deanna's marriage to Vaughn end in divorce.

In 1944 she made her first and last Technicolor film Can't Help Singing. The rest of her films were made in black and white because it was too expensive to have Deanna Durbin and colour film both in the same movie. Deanna had been making $250,000 a year since the age of 18. An unheard of sum at those times. She was the highest paid woman in America and the highest paid actress in the world.

In 1944 Deanna turned 23 and perhaps hoping to avoid the folly of youth married a man very much her senior. Playwright Felix Jackson was twenty years old than Deanna and for some time her life away from the cameras looked like it would turn out to be as happy as it had been in front of the cameras. There was happy news when their daughter, Jessica Louise Jackson was born in 1946, but the happiness wasn't to last. They went their separate ways just three years later. It was a bitter disappointment for Deanna who increasingly hoped to have what most of us would call a "normal" life. While married to Felix, Deanna made Lady on a Train (1945). It was directed by Charles David and they remained friends. Five years later, just a year after her divorce from Felix Jackson, the two were married and Deanna officially retired. In her prenuptial agreement Deanna made Charles swear she would never have to be in a film again and to guarantee her the chance to lead the normal life she had almost desperately sought. He would have to fight off the studios and the press for many years. And, happily, her third marriage lasted. They had a son, Peter, and seemed to be living the life she had dreamed of in France, far far from the bright lights of Hollywood. Now life was family and friends. An average life for an above average woman.

Deanna Durbin still lives in France. Charles David died on March 1, 1999.