Barbara Read (Actor)

Reviews of Barbara Read Movies

Looking for reviews of Barbara Read movies? Cinafilm has a total of 123 reviews across 3 movies.

Movies starring Barbara Read have generally received positive reviews and hold an average score of 70%.

Make Way for Tomorrow - released in 1937 - is Barbara Read's highest rated movie, with a score of 83% based on 113 reviews.

The lowest rated film from Barbara Read is Three Smart Girls - released in 1936 - with a score of 62% based on 7 reviews.

Actor Biography

Born in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, Barbara Read was the daughter of a contractor. Under contract to Columbia, she was paid but never used for a single picture. She quit in disgust. She was later signed by Universal and was cast as one of the Craig sisters inThree Smart Girls (1936) along with Deanna Durbin and Nan Grey. This was Barbara's first and best remembered film. Her career was over by the time she married actor William Talman, of "Perry Mason" fame, in 1953. The couple had two children: Barbara ("Barbie") and William III ("Bobo"). The marriage was turbulent as both she and Talman suffered from alcohol problems. They divorced in 1960 with Barbara gaining custody of the children. Talman took over custody a year later when Barbara's alcoholism and mental/emotional problems became overbearing. Committed suicide at her Laguna Beach, California home when she turned on the gas jets of her stove and sealed the doors and windows. She left a suicide note blaming "ill health". Barbara Read bore a powerful likeness to Deanna Durbin, whose sister she was portraying in "Three Smart Girls".

Barbara Read has acted in films with Dennis O'Keefe, Randolph Scott, Thomas Mitchell and Ray Milland.

Barbara Read has worked with these film directors: Leo McCarey, Henry Koster and Ray Enright.