Barbara Jane Bennett (August 13, 1906 – August 8, 1958) was an American stage and film actress and dancer.
Family
Born in Palisades Park, New Jersey, Barbara Bennett was the second of three daughters born to actor Richard Bennett and his wife, actress Adrienne Morrison. Her maternal grandfather was the stage actor
Lewis Morrison. Her older sister Constance and her younger sister
Joan Bennett had successful film careers. The girls attended the
Chapin School with the actress
Jane Wyatt.
Personal life
Bennett married three times and had five children. On January 28, 1929, she married
tenor Morton Downey. The couple had four biological children, including son Morton Downey Jr., and adopted a fifth child, Michael.
They divorced in June 1941. Bennett later married actor Jack Randall, a popular romantic star and
singing cowboy at the time. On July 16, 1945, Randall died after suffering a myocardial infarction and falling from a horse during the filming of
The Royal Mounted Rides Again. Bennett married Laurent Surprenant in 1954. The couple moved to
Montreal in 1957 and remained together until her death the following year.
Career
Bennett was an actress on
Broadway theatre as well as a film actress (1916-1930). In 1931, she co-authored the
waltz Dreaming of My Indiana Sweetheart with Bill Hansen.
[Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series. Part 3: Musical Compositions 1931: Vol 26 No 1-12 : Library of Congress. Copyright Office. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive]
Bennett later worked as a literary representative for producer Walter Wanger, who was married to her sister Joan. In that position, Bennett scouted best-sellers and the like as potential movie properties, especially for her sister Joan.
Death
On August 8, 1958, five days before her 52nd birthday, Bennett died after what the media described as an unidentified "long illness" in Montreal.
Over the course of her life, Bennett attempted suicide four times. As the circumstances surrounding herself were vague and Bennett's sister Joan refused to discuss the details of her death, rumors arose that Bennett had finally succeeded in ending her life.
In her 1982 memoirs Lulu in Hollywood, longtime friend and actress Louise Brooks wrote of Bennett, "Barbara made a career of her emotions. Periods of work or marriage were terminated by her frightening, abandoned laughter of despair and failure. Only her death, in 1958, achieved in her fifth suicide attempt, could be termed a success."
She was buried at Burtonville Union Cemetery in Lacolle, Quebec. A memorial service was later held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.
Broadway credits
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| The Stork | Heloise | January 26 – February 1925 |
| Victory Belles | Miss Flo Hilliard | October 26, 1943 – January 22, 1944 |
Filmography
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| 1916 | The Valley of Decision | Unborn soul | |
| 1927 | Black Jack | Nancy Blake | |
| 1929 | Syncopation | Fleurette Sloane | |
| 1929 | Mother's Boy | Beatrix Townleigh | |
| 1930 | Love Among the Millionaires | Virginia Hamilton | |
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Sources
External links
