Brenda Marshall
{{Short description|American actress (1915–1992)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Brenda Marshall
| image = Brenda Marshall.jpg
| caption = Marshall in 1952
| birth_name = Ardis Ankerson
| birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=y|1915|09|29}}
| birth_place = Negros, Philippine Islands
| death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=y|1992|07|30|1915|09|29}}
| death_place = Palm Springs, California, U.S.
| other_names = Ardis Gaines
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1939–1950
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Richard Gaines|1936|1940|end=div}}
- {{marriage|William Holden|1941|1971|end=div}}
}}
| children = 3
}}
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. {{cite news|last1=Clark|first1=W.K.|title=It's Another Brenda's Year|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5690169/the_salt_lake_tribune/|work=The Salt Lake Tribune|date=December 31, 1939|location=Utah, Salt Lake City|page=49|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = June 25, 2016}} {{Open access}} – July 30, 1992) was an American film actress.
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).{{cite book |last1=Aaker |first1=Everett |title=George Raft: The Films |date=2013 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-6646-7 |pages=104–105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=do_mYtgrjSAC&q=%22Richard+Gaines%22+actor&pg=PA105 |accessdate=February 11, 2020 |language=en}} 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 picture 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".
Personal life
File:Reagan wedding - Holden - 1952.jpg, sole guests at Ronald and Nancy Reagan's wedding in 1952]]
Marshall was born as Ardis Ankerson in the island of Negros, in the Philippines to Swedish parents.{{Cite web |title=Brenda Marshall, 1915-1992 |url=https://lux.collections.yale.edu/view/person/12dc0646-8903-4b82-84f2-1480c3dcffdc |access-date=2024-07-20 |website=LUX: Yale Collections Discovery |language=en}} She did not use her stage name off set. She was one of two daughters of Otto Peter Ankerson, overseer of a large sugar 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; {{OCLC|20331617}} In the early 1930s, the girls were sent to San Antonio, Texas, to complete high school.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1499&dat=19830919&id=_m0aAAAAIBAJ&pg=5805,7435028&hl=en|title=The Milwaukee Journal |via= Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com|access-date=2018-03-28}} 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.[http://www.twu.edu/library/famous-alumnae.asp Famous Alumnae] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129014456/http://www.twu.edu/library/famous-alumnae.asp# |date=2010-11-29}}, Texas Woman's University website; accessed September 8, 2015.
File:William-Holden-Brenda-Marshall-1.jpg
She married the actor Richard Gaines in 1936, and they had one daughter, Virginia Gaines (born November 17, 1937); the couple divorced in 1940.{{cite book|last=Capua|first=Michelangelo|title=William Holden: A Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uMp6ACb74UkC&pg=PA29|year=2009|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, NC|isbn=978-0-7864-4440-3|pages=29–31}}
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).{{cite news| url=http://www.desertsun.com/story/life/entertainment/2014/09/29/west-holden-william-holden-actor-death-theater/16457703| title=West Holden: More than just the son of William Holden| last=Fessier| first=Bruce| date=September 29, 2014| newspaper=The Desert Sun| location=Palm Springs, California}} After several separations, Marshall and Holden were divorced in 1971. Marshall moved to Palm Springs, California in 1971.{{cite book|last1=Meeks|first1=Eric G.|title=The Best Guide Ever to Palm Springs Celebrity Homes|date=2014|orig-year=2012|publisher=Horatio Limburger Oglethorpe|isbn=978-1479328598|page=364}} She died in 1992 from throat cancer in Palm Springs, aged 76.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-14-mn-5174-story.html|title=Brenda Marshall; Starred in '40s Swashbucklers|date=August 14, 1992|website=Los Angeles Times}}
==Filmography==
| class="wikitable" | |||
| style="background:#B0C4DE;"
! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
| rowspan="2"| 1939 | Blackwell's Island | Reynolds' Secretary | uncredited |
| Espionage Agent | Miss Brenda Ballard | ||
| rowspan="5"| 1940 | The Man Who Talked Too Much | Celia Farrady | |
| The Sea Hawk | Doña Maria | with Errol Flynn | |
| Money and the Woman | Barbara Patteson | ||
| East of the River | Laurie Romayne | ||
| South of Suez | Katharine 'Kit' Sheffield | ||
| rowspan="4"| 1941 | Footsteps in the Dark | Rita Warren | with Errol Flynn |
| Singapore Woman | Vicki Moore | ||
| Highway West | Claire Foster | ||
| The Smiling Ghost | Lil Barstow | ||
| rowspan="2"| 1942 | Captains of the Clouds | Emily Foster | |
| You Can't Escape Forever | Laurie Abbott | ||
| rowspan="3"| 1943 | The Constant Nymph | Toni Sanger | |
| Background to Danger | Tamara Zaleshoff | w/ George Raft | |
| Paris After Dark | Yvonne Blanchard | ||
| rowspan="2" |1946 | Strange Impersonation | Nora Goodrich | |
| Whispering Smith | Marian Sinclair | with Alan Ladd | |
| 1950 | The Iroquois Trail | Marion Thorne |
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite book|last=Capua|first=Michelangelo|title=William Holden: A Biography|year=2009|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, NC|isbn=978-0-7864-4440-3}}
- Gaines, Virginia Holden. Growing Up with William Holden: A Memoir (Strategems, 2007) {{ISBN|978-0-9741304-5-3}}
External links
{{Commons category|Brenda Marshall}}
{{Portal|Biography}}
- {{IMDb name|0550782}}
- [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=5546 Photographs and literature]
- [http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002hj52x 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.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Brenda}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:American film actresses
Category:American people of Swedish descent
Category:Actresses from San Antonio
Category:Actresses from Palm Springs, California