Brenda Marshall

 ( 1915 Births ) 

Brenda Marshall (born Ardis Ankerson; September 29, 1915Some question exists regarding the exact date of her birth. An article in the December 31, 1939, issue of the Salt Lake Tribune says that she was born November 29, 1915. – July 30, 1992) was an American film actress.

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Career Marshall made her first film appearance as Ardis Gaines in Wives of Tomorrow (1937). Her initial billing as Brenda Marshall came in Espionage Agent (1939).

(2025). 9780786466467, McFarland. . ISBN 9780786466467

The following year, she played the leading lady to Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk. After divorcing actor Richard Gaines in 1940, she married William Holden in 1941, and her own career soon slowed. She starred opposite James Cagney in Captains of the Clouds (1942).

Marshall appeared in The Constant Nymph (1943), but she virtually retired after this, appearing in only four more films, including the Western Whispering Smith (1948). She also played scientist Nora Goodrich in the B pictures cult film Strange Impersonation (1946). In 1955, five years after her last film role, she made an appearance as herself (billed as Mrs. William Holden) in the fourth-season episode of I Love Lucy titled "The Fashion Show".

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Personal life Marshall was born as Ardis Ankerson in the island of Negros, in the Philippines to Swedish parents. She did not use her stage name off set. She was one of two daughters of Otto Peter Ankerson, overseer of a large sugarcane plantation near Bacolod. Her mother died in 1925 when she was young, Philippine Death Index, Bacolod City so Ardis, along with her older sister Ruth, attended grammar school and began high school studies as boarding students at the Brent School in Baguio.p. 140 in: Halsema, James J. Bishop Brent's Baguio School: The First 75 Years. Brent School, Baguio, Philippines; In the early 1930s, the girls were sent to San Antonio, Texas, to complete high school. She attended Texas State College for Women in her freshman and sophomore years, 1933–1935, and was named the Freshman Class Beauty in 1934, chosen by modern dancer Ted Shawn. Famous Alumnae , Texas Woman's University website; accessed September 8, 2015.

She married the actor Richard Gaines in 1936, and they had one daughter, Virginia Gaines (born November 17, 1937); the couple divorced in 1940.

In 1941, Marshall married actor William Holden, who adopted Virginia, and Marshall and Holden had two sons together, Peter Westfield "West" Holden (1943–2014) and Scott Porter Holden (1946–2005). After several separations, Marshall and Holden were divorced in 1971. Marshall moved to Palm Springs, California in 1971.

She died in 1992 from throat cancer in Palm Springs, aged 76.

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Filmography

uncredited

with Errol Flynn

with Errol Flynn

w/ George Raft

with Alan Ladd

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Sources

• Michelangelo Capua (2025). 9780786444403, McFarland. ISBN 9780786444403
• Gaines, Virginia Holden. Growing Up with William Holden: A Memoir (Strategems, 2007)

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External links

• Photographs and literature
• Image of William Holden and Brenda Marshall, Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1951. Los Angeles TimesPhotographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

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