Mary Brian (born Louise Byrdie Dantzler, February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002), was an American actress, who made the transition from silent films to sound films. Brian was dubbed "The Sweetest Girl in Pictures." After her showing in a beauty contest, she was given an audition by Paramount Pictures and cast by director Herbert Brenon as Wendy Darling in his silent movie version of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. There she starred with Betty Bronson and Esther Ralston, and the three of them stayed close for the rest of their lives. Ralston described both Bronson and Brian as 'very charming people'. The studio, who created her stage name for the movie and said she was age 16 instead of 18, because the latter sounded too old for the role, then signed her to a long-term motion picture contract. Brian played Fancy Vanhern, daughter of Percy Marmont, in Brenon's The Street of Forgotten Men, which had newcomer Louise Brooks in an uncredited debut role as a moll. Her first talkie was Varsity, which was filmed with part-sound and talking sequences, opposite Buddy Rogers. After successfully making the transition to sound, she co-starred with Gary Cooper, Walter Huston and Richard Arlen in one of the earliest Western talkies, The Virginian, her first all-talkie feature. In it, she played a spirited frontier heroine, schoolmarm Molly Stark Wood, who was the love interest of the Virginian. Brian co-starred in several hits during the 1930s, including The Royal Family of Broadway, Paramount on Parade, and The Front Page. After her contract with Paramount ended in 1932, Brian decided to freelance, which was unusual in a period when multi-year contracts with one studio were common. That same year, she appeared on the vaudeville stage at New York's Palace Theatre. Also in the same year, she starred in Manhattan Tower. When World War II hit in 1941, Brian began traveling to entertain the troops, ending up spending most of the war years traveling the world with the U.S.O., and entertaining servicemen from the South Pacific to Europe, including Italy and North Africa.Flying to England on a troop shoot, Mary got caught in the Battle of the Bulge and spent the Christmas of 1944 with the soldiers fighting that battle. She appeared in only a handful of films thereafter. Her last performance on the silver screen was in Dragnet, a B-movie in which she played Anne Hogan opposite Henry Wilcoxon. Over the course of 22 years, Brian had appeared in more than 79 movies. She played in the stage comedy Mary Had a Little... in the 1951 in Melbourne, Australia, co-starring with John Hubbard. Like many "older" actresses, during the 1950s Brian created a career for herself in television. Perhaps her most notable role was playing the title character's mother in Meet Corliss Archer in 1954. She also dedicated much time to portrait painting after her acting years.

Filmography

• 2024Noisy Silencers — (archive footage)
• Meet Corliss Archer
• 1947Dragnet — Anne Hogan
• 1943Calaboose — Doris Lane
• 1943Danger! Women at Work — Pert
• 1943I Escaped from the Gestapo — Helen
• 1941I Was a Criminal — Frau Obermueller, the Mayor's Wife
• 1937Affairs of Cappy Ricks — Frances 'Frankie' Ricks
• 1937Navy Blues — Doris Kimbell
• 1936Killer at Large — Linda Allen
• 1936Once in a Million — Suzanne
• 1936Spendthrift — Sally Barnaby
• 1936The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss — Frances Clayton
• 1936Three Married Men — Jennie Mullins
• 1936Two's Company — Julia Madison
• 1935Charlie Chan in Paris — Yvette Lamartine
• 1935Man on the Flying Trapeze — Hope Wolfinger
• 1934College Rhythm — Gloria Van Dayham
• 1934Ever Since Eve — Elizabeth Vandergrift
• 1934Monte Carlo Nights — Mary Vernon
• 1933Fog — Mary Fulton
• 1933Girl Missing — June Dale
• 1933Hard to Handle — Ruth Waters
• 1933Moonlight and Pretzels — Sally Upton
• 1933One Year Later — Molly Collins
• 1933Shadows of Sing Sing — Muriel Ross aka Muriel Rossi
• 1933Song of the Eagle — Elsa Kranzmeyer
• 1933The World Gone Mad — Diane Cromwell
• 1932Blessed Event — Gladys Price
• 1932It's Tough to Be Famous — Janet Porter McClenahan
• 1932Manhattan Tower — Mary Harper
• 1932The Unwritten Law — Ruth Evans
• 1931Captain Applejack — Poppy Faire
• 1931Gun Smoke — Sue Vancey
• 1931Hollywood Halfbacks
• 1931Homicide Squad — Millie
• 1931The Front Page — Peggy Grant
• 1931The Runaround — Evelyn
• 1930Burning Up — Ruth Morgan
• 1930Only Saps Work — Barbara Tanner
• 1930Only the Brave — Barbara Calhoun
• 1930Paramount on Parade — Sweetheart (Dream Girl)
• 1930The Kibitzer — Josie Lazarus
• 1930The Light of Western Stars — Ruth Hammond
• 1930The Royal Family of Broadway — Gwen Cavendish
• 1930The Social Lion — Cynthia Brown
• 1929Black Waters — Eunice
• 1929The Man I Love — Celia Fields
• 1929The Marriage Playground — Judith Wheater
• 1929The River of Romance — Lucy Jeffers
• 1929The Virginian — Molly Stark Wood
• 1928Forgotten Faces — Alice Deane
• 1928Harold Teen — Lillums Lovewell
• 1928Partners in Crime — Marie Burke, The Cigarette Girl
• 1928Someone to Love — Joan Kendricks
• 1928The Big Killing — Mary Beagle - Old Man Beagle's Daughter
• 1928Under the Tonto Rim — Lucy Watson
• 1928Varsity — Fay
• 1927Her Father Said No — Charlotte Hamilton
• 1927Knockout Reilly — Mary Malone
• 1927Man Power — Alice Stoddard
• 1927Running Wild — Elizabeth Finch
• 1927Shanghai Bound — Sheila
• 1927Two Flaming Youths — Mary Gilfoil
• 1926Beau Geste — Isabel Rivers
• 1926Behind the Front — Betty Bartlett-Cooper
• 1926Brown of Harvard — Mary Abbot
• 1926More Pay - Less Work — Betty Ricks
• 1926Paris at Midnight — Victorine Tallefer
• 1926Stepping Along — Molly Taylor
• 1926The Enchanted Hill — Hallie Purdy
• 1926The Prince of Tempters — Mary
• 1925He's a Prince! — Girl
• 1925The Air Mail — Minnie Wade
• 1925The Little French Girl — Alix Vervier
• 1925The Street of Forgotten Men — Mary Vanhern
• 1924Peter Pan — Wendy Darling

Appearances as themselves (1)

• 1934Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove — Self