Barbara Gil (1930 - 2015)

Mexican Actress. Gil was a very prominent Mexican actress who appeared in many films and television series. She studied acting at the National Institute of Fine Arts and made her acting debut in the play “Don Quixote” in 1947 at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. Gil later appeared in many films and […]

Barbara Graham (1923 - 1955)

Graham was born Barbara Elaine Ford in Oakland, California to young unwed mother Hortense Ford. On February 23, 1925, Hortense Ford gave birth to a second daughter out of wedlock, Claire Elizabeth. Hortense Ford later married a man by the name of Joseph Wood, whose surname was then given to Barbara and Claire. Hortense had […]

Barbara Hale (1922 - 2017)

Barbara Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, a daughter of Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and Wilma Colvin. She had one sister, Juanita, whom Hale’s younger daughter was named for. The family was of Scots-Irish ancestry. In 1940, Hale graduated from Rockford High School in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine […]

Barbara Hamilton (1926 - 1996)

Actress. Known for her work on Canadian stage and television, she was once labelled the funniest woman in Canada. Born in Kingston, Ontario, Hamilton attended the University of Toronto before embarking on a career in theatre arts. Her father, who raised her and sister Mary, alone since the death of her mother when she was […]

Barbara Hepworth (1903 - 1975)

Sculptor.  She was the leading British woman sculptor of the 20th century.  She was the eldest of four children and the daughter of a civil engineer who lived and worked in the West Riding of Yorkshire. She had a gift for mathematics, and her closeness to her father and his work familiarized her with technical […]

Barbara Hutton (1912 - 1979)

Barbara Woolworth Hutton (November 14, 1912 – May 11, 1979) was an American debutante, socialite, heiress and philanthropist. She was dubbed the “Poor Little Rich Girl,” first when she was given a lavish and expensive debutante ball in 1930, amid the Great Depression, and later due to a notoriously troubled private life. Heiress to the […]

Barbara Jean McNair (1934 - 2007)

Actress, Singer. Born in Racine, Wisconsin, she had numerous credits in television and films since the 1960s and hosted her own series “The Barbara McNair Show” in 1969. After her film debut with a minor role in the 1963 movie “Spencer’s Mountain”, McNair’s other credits include the films “If He Hollers, Let Him Go!”, (1968), […]

Barbara Jo “Vera Vague” Allen (1906 - 1974)

Actress. She is best remembered as ‘Vera Vague’ the spinster character she created and portrayed on radio and in films during the 1940s and 1950s. As ‘Vera Vague’, she popularized the catch phrase “You dear boy!” Born in New York City, New York, her acting skills first appeared in school plays. She traveled to Paris, […]

Barbara Jo “Vera Vague” Allen (1906 - 1974)

Actress. She is best remembered as ‘Vera Vague’ the spinster character she created and portrayed on radio and in films during the 1940s and 1950s. As ‘Vera Vague’, she popularized the catch phrase “You dear boy!” Born in New York City, New York, her acting skills first appeared in school plays. She traveled to Paris, […]

Barbara Jo Allen (1906 - 1974)

Actress. She is best remembered as ‘Vera Vague’ the spinster character she created and portrayed on radio and in films during the 1940s and 1950s. As ‘Vera Vague’, she popularized the catch phrase “You dear boy!” Born in New York City, New York, her acting skills first appeared in school plays. She traveled to Paris, […]

Barbara Jo Lawrence (1930 - 2013)

Actress, Author. Lawrence, who appeared in 30 movies and 70 television shows from the late 1940s through the early 60s, moved with her mother to California at age 10, and was crowned “Little Miss Hollywood of 1942”. In her teens, she became a model and then an actress under contract to 20th Century Fox Studios, […]

Barbara June Eiler (1922 - 2006)

Radio Personality and Actress. Born in California to Benjamin Harrison and Margaret Sonora Eiler.  Barbara began her career as a teenager and appeared regularly on the radio programs The Life of Riley, A Day in the Life of Dennis Day, The Fabulous Dr. Tweedy and Glamor Manor. She married Martin Sperzel in 1943 and together […]

Barbara Kelly (1924 - 2007)

Barbara Kelly was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1924. As a child, she was given elocution lessons, and while Kelly hated the stage her mother was a frustrated actress. Kelly’s first professional role was playing the Virgin Mary in a Nativity Play. Kelly’s father, an Irishman, was a lorry driver in Vancouver. Her mother, […]

Barbara Kent (1907 - 2011)

Born as Barbara Cloutman in Gadsby, Alberta, to Jullion Curtis and Lily Louise (née Kent) Cloutman, Barbara Kent won the 21-year-old Miss Hollywood Pageant in 1925, the same year she graduated from Hollywood High School. Barbara Kent began her Hollywood career in 1925, aged 18, in a small role for Universal Studios, which signed her to […]

Barbara Keogh (1929 - 2005)

Actress. She was born in Cheshire, England. She is best remembered for her work on television, in series such as “The Grimleys” and “Eastenders.” On stage, among others, she appeared in three plays at the National, including “John Gabriel Borkman,” with Ralph Richardson and Peggy Ashcroft and later came Adrian Noble’s production of “The Duchess […]

Barbara Knudson (1927 - 2014)

Barbara Ann Knudson (December 4, 1927 – May 11, 2014) was an American film and television actress with more than forty professional credits, including starring roles in Meet Danny Wilson in 1952, The Cry Baby Killer in 1958, and The Jayhawkers! in 1959. Barbara Knudson was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 4, 1927, to […]

Barbara La Marr (1896 - 1926)

La Marr was born in 1896 as Reatha Dale Watson to William Wallace and Rosana “Rose” Watson in Yakima, Washington (La Marr later claimed she was born in Richmond, Virginia). Her father was an editor for a newspaper, and her mother had a son, Henry, born in 1878, and a daughter, Violet, born in February […]

Barbara Lawrence (1930 - 2013)

Born to Morris Lawrence and Berniece (or Bernice) Eaton Lawrence in Carnegie, Oklahoma, Barbara Lawrence moved with her mother to Kansas City, Missouri as an adolescent. Lawrence’s career began as a child photographer’s model. She appeared in her first film, Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe (1945), as a night-club patron. A year later, she made a […]

Barbara Loden (1932 - 1980)

Barbara Loden made her New York theater debut in 1947 in Compulsion and also appeared on stage in The Highest Tree with Robert Redford as well as Night Circus with Ben Gazzara and in the stage version of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.  She made her television debut on […]

Barbara Luddy (1908 - 1979)

Barbara Luddy (May 25, 1908 — April 1, 1979) was an American actress from Great Falls, Montana. Her film career began with silent pictures in the 1920s, during which time she was also a prolific radio performer. One of her better known performances on radio was on the The First Nighter Program from 1936 until […]

Barbara Mary Everest (1890 - 1968)

Actress. Carry On movie series cast.

Barbara McNair (1934 - 2007)

Barbara McNair (March 4, 1934 – February 4, 2007) was an American singer and actress. Born Barbara Jean McNair in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, McNair studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Her big break came with a win on Arthur Godfrey’s TV show Talent Scouts, which led to […]

Barbara Meek (1934 - 2015)

Barbara Meek was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Juanita (née Coleman) and Harold Talmadge Meek, and is the maternal granddaughter of the Reverend Horatius “H.H.” Coleman, pastor of the Greater Macedonia Baptist Church. She was a graduate of Northwestern High School, and as an undergraduate was asked to join Wayne State University’s graduate theater program. […]

Barbara Mertz (1927 - 2013)

Barbara Mertz was born on September 29, 1927, in Canton, Illinois. She was graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in 1947, a master’s degree in 1950, and a PhD in Egyptology in 1952, having studied with John A. Wilson. She authored two books on ancient Egypt (both of which have been […]

Barbara Mullen (1914 - 1979)

Barbara Mullen (9 June 1914, Boston, Massachusetts – 9 March 1979, London, England) was an American actress well known in the UK for playing the part of Janet, the housekeeper, in Dr Finlay’s Casebook. Although the role of Janet brought her fame in later years, she had already made her mark in the theatre. Mullen’s parents, […]

Barbara Murray (1929 - 2014)

Actress. A versatile performer, she is remembered for her long career on the British stage and screen. The child of a theatrical family, she was raised within the show business milieu, started dancing in her parents’ act around age six, and during World War II was hidden in Wales. After the War, she worked with […]

Barbara Nichols (1929 - 1976)

Actress. She is known for roles in such movies as “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” and “The Human Duplicators.” (bio by: Ron Moody)

Barbara O’Neil (1910 - 1980)

Actress. She appeared in several motion pictures of the 1930s through 1950s. Best remembered as Scarlett O’Hara’s mother ‘Ellen O’Hara’ in the 1939 classic drama, “Gone With The Wind.” She was actually only three years older than Scarlett actress Vivien Leigh. (bio by: The Perplexed Historian)  Family links:  Parents:  Barbara Blackman O’Neil (1880 – 1963) […]

Barbara Payton (1927 - 1967)

Actress. Born Barbara Redfield in Cloquet, Minnesota, a small town 20 miles west of Duluth), she was of Norwegian-German ancestry. At 11 years old, her grandfather’s timberlands were burned by a forest fire and the family moved to Odessa, TX. She attended Baylor Junior High and graduated from Odessa High School. For escape from the […]

Barbara Pepper (1915 - 1969)

Barbara Pepper (May 31, 1915 – July 18, 1969) was an American stage, television, radio, and film actress. She is best known as the first “Doris Ziffel” on the sitcom Green Acres. Born as Marion Pepper in New York City, at age 16 she started life in show business as one of the slender, curvy, and […]