Barbara Bennett

{{Infobox person

| name = Barbara Bennett

| image = Barbara Bennett.jpg

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Barbara Jane Bennett

| birth_date = {{birth date|1906|8|13}}

| birth_place = {{nowrap|Palisades Park, New Jersey, U.S.}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1958|8|8|1906|8|13}}

| death_place = Montréal, Québec, Canada

| resting_place = Burtonsville Union Cemetery, MD

| other_names = Barbara Bennett Suprenant

| education =

| alma_mater =

| occupation = Actress, dancer

| years_active =

| known_for =

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Morton Downey|1929|1941|end=divorced}}
{{marriage|Addison Randall|1941|1945|end=died}}
{{marriage|Laurent Suprenant|1954}}

}}

| children = 5, including Morton Downey Jr.

| parents = Richard Bennett
Adrienne Morrison

| relatives = Constance Bennett (sister)
Joan Bennett (sister)
Lewis Morrison (maternal grandfather)

}}

Barbara Jane Bennett (August 13, 1906 – August 8, 1958) was an American stage and film actress and dancer.

Family

File:Richard-Bennett-Daughters.jpg

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 had successful film careers. The girls attended the Chapin School with the actress Jane Wyatt.{{sfn|Kellow|2004}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19580810&id=v7syAAAAIBAJ&pg=3110,3247831&hl=en|title=Barbara Bennett, Sister of Actresses|date=August 10, 1958|work=The Miami News|page=6C|accessdate=May 14, 2015|location=Miami, Florida}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} They divorced in June 1941. Bennett later married actor Addison 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 Suprenant in 1954. The couple moved to Montreal in 1957 and remained together until her death the following year.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19580810&id=NgNQAAAAIBAJ&pg=2952,1234619&hl=en|title=Barbara Bennett, Ex-Actress, Dies|date=August 10, 1958|work=The Evening Independent|page=1|accessdate=May 14, 2015|location=St. Petersburg, Florida}}

Career

File:Black Jack 1927 film poster.jpg, a 1927 Fox Film Corporation release.]]

Bennett was an actress on Broadway as well as a film actress (1916-1930). In 1931, she co-authored the waltz Dreaming of My Indiana Sweetheart with Bill Hansen.{{Cite web |title=(Dreaming of my) Indiana sweetheart {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/1346199686 |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Congress |first=The Library of |title=Kornheiser, Phil, 1885-1972 - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies {{!}} Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress) |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2014149095.html |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=id.loc.gov}}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.{{sfn|Kellow|2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/bennettsactingfa00kell_0/page/497 497]}}

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.{{sfn|Kellow|2004|p=396}}

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."{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Louise |authorlink1=Louise Brooks |title=Lulu in Hollywood |edition=1989 Limelight |year=1989 |orig-date=Originally published 1983 |publisher=Limelight Editions |location=New York |isbn=0-87910-125-3 |oclc= 639598800 |page=13 |chapter=Kansas to New York}}

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.{{sfn|Kellow|2004|p=396}}

Broadway credits

class="wikitable sortable"
Production ! Role ! Date
The Stork \| Heloise \| January 26 – February 1925
Victory Belles \| Miss Flo Hilliard \| October 26, 1943 – January 22, 1944

class="wikitable sortable"

Production

! Role

! Date

The Stork

| Heloise

| January 26 – February 1925

Victory Belles

| Miss Flo Hilliard

| October 26, 1943 – January 22, 1944

Filmography

class="wikitable sortable"
Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" \| Notes
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 \|

class="wikitable sortable"

Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

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

References

=Sources=

{{cite book|last=Kellow|first=Brian|title=The Bennetts: An Acting Family|url=https://archive.org/details/bennettsactingfa00kell_0|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=0-813-17192-X}}