Barbara Britton (September 26, 1919 – January 17, 1980) was a film and television actress.
She was the first actress to play Laura Petrie on television on the pilot program, "Head of the Family" which was retooled and became The Dick Van Dyke Show with the role taken over by Mary Tyler Moore. The California native signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures in 1941. Her first two films were that same year, first in the William Boyd western Secret of the Wasteland, followed by Louisiana Purchase starring Bob Hope. Her first big film appearance was a small role in the 1942 John Wayne film Reap the Wild Wind.
During the 1940s she starred in three films that, today, are her most recognizable film roles, two of which placed her starring opposite Randolph Scott. The first was with Scott in the 1945 film Captain Kidd, followed by The Virginian in 1946, opposite Joel McCrea. The third was in the 1947 Randolph Scott film Gunfighters. All three were western films. She would team with Randolph Scott again in the 1948 western Albuquerque, and that same year she starred opposite Gene Autry in Loaded Pistols. In total she starred or appeared in twenty-six films during that decade.
Britton starred in the 1950s television show Mr. and Mrs. North, a Thin Man-like mystery show. She was probably best known for being the spokesperson for Revlon products in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in ads and commercials including live spots on The $64,000 Question.
One of Barbara's last roles was on the daytime soap One Life to Live in 1979, a year before she died of gastric cancer. For many years Barbara and her husband lived in a rambling red shingled house in the Fairfield County town of Bethel, Connecticut before moving to the now antique-gallery-enclave of Woodbury, Connecticut.
External links
Barbara Britton at the Internet Movie Database
Barbara Britton at Allmovie
This article about a United States film and TV actor or actress born in the 1910s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Britton"
Categories: 1919 births | 1980 deaths | Hollywood Walk of Fame | American television actors | American film actors | American screen actor stubsHidden category: Articles lacking reliable references from April 2008
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