Born 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canadian actress and singer Deanna Durbin made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios.
With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, Durbin performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias. Her success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936) was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy.
In 1938, at the age of 17, Durbin was awarded the Academy Juvenile Award.
As she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her, and attempted to portray a more womanly and sophisticated style. The film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945) were, however, not as well received as her musical comedies and romances had been.
Durbin retired from acting and singing in 1949, and withdrew from public life, granting no interviews for the remainder of her life, except for one in 1983. She married film producer-director Charles Henri David in 1950, and the couple moved to a farmhouse near Paris.
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 died in 2013 in Neauphle-le-Château, France at the age of 91.
Take a look at these vintage pics to see the beauty of young Deanna Durbin in the early 1930s.
With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, Durbin performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias. Her success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936) was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy.
In 1938, at the age of 17, Durbin was awarded the Academy Juvenile Award.
As she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her, and attempted to portray a more womanly and sophisticated style. The film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945) were, however, not as well received as her musical comedies and romances had been.
Durbin retired from acting and singing in 1949, and withdrew from public life, granting no interviews for the remainder of her life, except for one in 1983. She married film producer-director Charles Henri David in 1950, and the couple moved to a farmhouse near Paris.
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 died in 2013 in Neauphle-le-Château, France at the age of 91.
Take a look at these vintage pics to see the beauty of young Deanna Durbin in the early 1930s.
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