Date of Birth

25 May 1903, Islington, London, England, UK

Date of Death

27 July 1998, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (natural causes)

British-born actress who appeared in both British and American films, but who found her greatest success in Hollywood second leads. After a variety of jobs, including nurse, chorus girl and milkmaid, Barnes entered vaudeville. She appeared in more than a score of short comedies with comedian Stanley Lupino before making her feature bow in 1931. Two years later she achieved prominence as one of the half-dozen wives of the King in The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933). The following year she moved to Hollywood and began a career as the smart-aleck pal of the lead or as the angry "other woman." Barnes also played numerous leading roles, but spent most of the 1930s and 40s in strong supporting parts. In 1940 she married football star (and later producer) M.J. Frankovich and after the war, they moved to Italy and appeared in several films there and elsewhere in Europe. She retired from films in 1954, but returned for a few roles in the late 60s and early 70s. She worked busily with numerous charities until her death in 1998.

Her early work, beginning at age 15, included milkmaid, nurse, chorus girl, dance hostess and a vaudeville rope-twirling act in which she was known as "Texas Binnie Barnes." Her acting debut, with Charles Laughton, was in 1929 in Silver Tassie; her film debut was the English movie Night in Montmartre (1931). She did 26 comedy shorts with Stanley Lupino, which led to her playing Catherine Howard in Laughton's The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933) and a year later a part in Douglas Fairbanks' The Private Life of Don Juan (1934). In 1934, Carl Laemmle Jr. brought her to Hollywood where she played in more than 75 movies including Diamond Jim (1935) with Edward Arnold, The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) with Gary Cooper, and The Singing Musketeer (1939) with Don Ameche. In 1940, she married UCLA football star (and later Columbia Studios producer) M.J. Frankovich. They moved to Italy after World War II where she made more films. She returned to Hollywood in the 1960s, playing in TV series and as Sister Celestine in the two Rosalind Russell "Angels" movies. Her last film was 40 Carats (1973) starring Liv Ullmann and Gene Kelly. Her husband died in 1992; she died six years later, aged 95, at her home in Beverly Hills. She was survived by two sons and a daughter


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