Barbara Read
Actor
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)
Filmography
Coroner Creek
as Abbie Miles (as Barbara Reed) 1948
Three Smart Girls
as Kay Craig 1936
Key Witness
as Martha Higby (as Barbara Reed) 1947
The Missing Lady
as Margo Lane 1946
The Shadow Returns
as Margo Lane 1946
The Road Back
as Lucy 1937
Behind the Mask
as Margo Lane 1946
Sorority House
as Dotty Spencer 1939
Midnight Intruder
as Patricia Hammond 1938
Married and in Love
as Helen Yates 1940
Too Many Women
as Linda Pearson 1942
Curtain Call
as Helen Middleton 1940
Rubber Racketeers
as Mary Dale 1942
The Man Who Cried Wolf
as Nan 1937
The Spellbinder
as Janet Marlowe 1939
Death Valley
as Mitzi 1946