Marian Marsh
Encyclopedia
Marian Marsh was an American film actress, and later, environmentalist
.
), the youngest of four children of a German
chocolate
manufacturer and his French
-English
wife.
Due to World War I
, Violet's father moved his family to Boston, Massachusetts. By the time Violet was ten, the family had relocated to California
where Violet's older sister, an actress who went by the name of Jean Fenwick, eventually landed a job as a contract player with FBO Studios
.
Violet attended La Conte Junior High School and Hollywood High School
. In 1928, Violet was approached by silent screen actress Nance O'Neil, who offered her speech and movement lessons. With sister Jean's help, Violet soon entered the movies. Violet, now known as Marilyn Morgan, secured a contract with Pathé
where she was featured in many short subjects under the name Marilyn Morgan. She was seen in a small roles in Howard Hughes
' classic Hell's Angels
(1930) and Eddie Cantor
's lavish Technicolor
musical Whoopee!
(1930). Not long afterwards, she was signed by Warner Bros.
and her name was changed to Marian Marsh.
opposite John Barrymore
. Marsh was chosen by Barrymore, himself, for the role of "Trilby". Barrymore coached her performance throughout the picture's filming. Svengali was based on the 1894 novel Trilby
written by George du Maurier
. A popular play, likewise entitled Trilby, followed in 1895. In the film version, which Warner Bros. had retitled Svengali, Marsh plays the artists' model Trilby, who is transformed into a great opera star by the sinister hypnotist, Svengali. The word
"Svengali'" has entered the English language
, defining a person who, with sometimes evil intent, tries to persuade another to do what he desires.
Marsh was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
of 1931. And, with the critical praise and the audience's approval of Svengali, she continued in a string of successful films for Warner Bros. including Five Star Final
(1931) with Edward G. Robinson
, The Mad Genius
(1931) with Barrymore, The Road to Singapore (1931) with William Powell
, the charming Beauty and the Boss (1932) with Warren William
, and Under 18
(again with William).
In 1932, in the midst of a grueling work schedule, Marsh left Warner Bros. and took several film offers in Europe
which lasted until 1934. She enjoyed working in England and Germany, as well as vacationing several times in Paris. Back in the United States, she appeared as the heroine, Elnora, in a popular adaptation of the perennial favorite A Girl of the Limberlost (1934) which also starred Louise Dresser
. Marsh had fondly admitted that this was her favorite film role. In 1935, Marsh signed a two-year pact with Columbia Pictures
. During this time, she starred in such films as Josef von Sternberg
's classic Crime and Punishment
(1935) with Peter Lorre
, The Black Room
(1935) regarded as one of Boris Karloff
's best horror films of the decade, and The Man Who Lived Twice (1936) with Ralph Bellamy
. When her contract expired in 1936, Marsh once again freelanced; appearing steadily in movies for RKO Radio Pictures where she made Saturday's Heroes with Van Heflin
, and for Paramount Pictures
where she played a young woman caught up in a mystery in The Great Gambini (1937). She also appeared with comic Joe E. Brown in When's Your Birthday?
(1937). In the 1940s, Marsh played the wife in Gentleman from Dixie (1941) and, in her last screen appearance, Marsh portrayed the daughter in House of Errors (1942) which starred veteran silent film actor, Harry Langdon
.
In the late 1950s, she appeared with John Forsythe
in an episode of his TV series Bachelor Father and in an episode of the TV series Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
before retiring in 1959.
named Albert Scott and had two children with him. After Scott's death, Marsh married Cliff Henderson
, an aviation
pioneer and entrepreneur
and moved to Palm Desert, California
, a town Henderson founded in the 1940s.
In the 1960s Marian founded Desert Beautiful, a non-profit, all volunteer conservation organization to promote environmental and beautification programs. Cliff Henderson died in 1984 and Marian Henderson remained in Palm Desert until her death, aged 93. She is buried at Desert Memorial Park
in Cathedral City, California
.
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
.
Early life
Violet Ethelred Krauth was born on October 17, 1913 in Trinidad, British West Indies (now Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
), the youngest of four children of a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
manufacturer and his French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
wife.
Due to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Violet's father moved his family to Boston, Massachusetts. By the time Violet was ten, the family had relocated to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
where Violet's older sister, an actress who went by the name of Jean Fenwick, eventually landed a job as a contract player with FBO Studios
Film Booking Offices of America
Film Booking Offices of America was an American film studio of the silent era, a producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began as Robertson-Cole , the American division of a British import–export company...
.
Violet attended La Conte Junior High School and Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School is a Los Angeles Unified School District high school located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.-History:...
. In 1928, Violet was approached by silent screen actress Nance O'Neil, who offered her speech and movement lessons. With sister Jean's help, Violet soon entered the movies. Violet, now known as Marilyn Morgan, secured a contract with Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
where she was featured in many short subjects under the name Marilyn Morgan. She was seen in a small roles in Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
' classic Hell's Angels
Hell's Angels (film)
Hell's Angels is a 1930 American war film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Harlow, Ben Lyon, and James Hall. The film, which was produced by Hughes and written by Harry Behn and Howard Estabrook, centers on the combat pilots of World War I...
(1930) and Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
's lavish Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
musical Whoopee!
Whoopee! (film)
Whoopee is a 1930 "All-Talking All-Color" musical comedy film photographed in two-color Technicolor. The plot of the film closely followed the stage show produced by Florenz Ziegfeld in 1928.-Production:...
(1930). Not long afterwards, she was signed by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and her name was changed to Marian Marsh.
Hollywood success
In 1931, Marsh landed one of her most important roles in SvengaliSvengali (1931 film)
Svengali is a drama/horror film starring John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, and Bramwell Fletcher, directed by Archie Mayo, written by J. Grubb Alexander, and released by Warner Brothers. It is based on the gothic horror novel Trilby by George du Maurier. The film was originally released on May 22, 1931...
opposite John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
. Marsh was chosen by Barrymore, himself, for the role of "Trilby". Barrymore coached her performance throughout the picture's filming. Svengali was based on the 1894 novel Trilby
Trilby (novel)
Trilby is a novel by George du Maurier and one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle after Bram Stoker's Dracula. Published serially in Harper's Monthly in 1894, it was published in book form in 1895 and sold 200,000 copies in the United...
written by George du Maurier
George du Maurier
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...
. A popular play, likewise entitled Trilby, followed in 1895. In the film version, which Warner Bros. had retitled Svengali, Marsh plays the artists' model Trilby, who is transformed into a great opera star by the sinister hypnotist, Svengali. The word
"Svengali'" has entered the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, defining a person who, with sometimes evil intent, tries to persuade another to do what he desires.
Marsh was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
of 1931. And, with the critical praise and the audience's approval of Svengali, she continued in a string of successful films for Warner Bros. including Five Star Final
Five Star Final
Five Star Final is a 1931 American film about crime and the excesses of tabloid journalism. It was written by Robert Lord and Byron Morgan from the play by Louis Weitzenkorn, and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The movie stars Edward G. Robinson and features H. B...
(1931) with Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
, The Mad Genius
The Mad Genius
The Mad Genius is a drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, and in small roles, Boris Karloff and Frankie Darro. The film is based on the play The Idol by Martin Brown, which opened in Great Neck, New York but never opened...
(1931) with Barrymore, The Road to Singapore (1931) with William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
, the charming Beauty and the Boss (1932) with Warren William
Warren William
Warren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...
, and Under 18
Under 18
Under 18 is a romantic drama film starring Marian Marsh, Anita Page, Regis Toomey, and Warren William. It is based on the short story "Sky Life" by Frank Mitchell Dazey and Agnes Christine Johnston...
(again with William).
In 1932, in the midst of a grueling work schedule, Marsh left Warner Bros. and took several film offers in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
which lasted until 1934. She enjoyed working in England and Germany, as well as vacationing several times in Paris. Back in the United States, she appeared as the heroine, Elnora, in a popular adaptation of the perennial favorite A Girl of the Limberlost (1934) which also starred Louise Dresser
Louise Dresser
Louise Dresser was an American actress.Born Louise Josephine Kerlin in Evansville, Indiana. Her father was a train conductor who died when she was fifteen years old...
. Marsh had fondly admitted that this was her favorite film role. In 1935, Marsh signed a two-year pact with Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. During this time, she starred in such films as Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
's classic Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment (1935 American film)
Crime and Punishment is a 1935 film directed by Josef von Sternberg for Columbia Pictures. The screenplay was adapted by Joseph Anthony and S.K. Lauren from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same title...
(1935) with Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
, The Black Room
The Black Room
The Black Room is a never-released LP by The KLF/The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, originally intended to be a complement to their earlier LP The White Room.-History:...
(1935) regarded as one of Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
's best horror films of the decade, and The Man Who Lived Twice (1936) with Ralph Bellamy
Ralph Bellamy
Ralph Bellamy was an American actor whose career spanned sixty-two years.-Early life:He was born Ralph Rexford Bellamy in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise , a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy. He ran away from home when he was fifteen and managed to get into a road show...
. When her contract expired in 1936, Marsh once again freelanced; appearing steadily in movies for RKO Radio Pictures where she made Saturday's Heroes with Van Heflin
Van Heflin
Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin, Jr. was an American film and theatre actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man...
, and for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
where she played a young woman caught up in a mystery in The Great Gambini (1937). She also appeared with comic Joe E. Brown in When's Your Birthday?
When's Your Birthday?
When's Your Birthday? American film directed by Harry Beaumont. While original prints of this film had a cartoon sequence in Technicolor directed by Bob Clampett and Leon Schlesinger, most prints have the sequence in black-and-white.- Plot summary :Dustin Willoughby When's Your Birthday? (1937)...
(1937). In the 1940s, Marsh played the wife in Gentleman from Dixie (1941) and, in her last screen appearance, Marsh portrayed the daughter in House of Errors (1942) which starred veteran silent film actor, Harry Langdon
Harry Langdon
Harry Philmore Langdon was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films , and talkies. He was briefly partnered with Oliver Hardy.-Life and career:...
.
In the late 1950s, she appeared with John Forsythe
John Forsythe
John Forsythe was an American stage, television and film actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning four decades and three genres: as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the sitcom Bachelor Father ; as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the crime drama Charlie's...
in an episode of his TV series Bachelor Father and in an episode of the TV series Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
before retiring in 1959.
Personal life
On 29 March 1938, Marsh married a stock brokerStock broker
A stock broker or stockbroker is a regulated professional broker who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers or Agency Only Firms on behalf of investors...
named Albert Scott and had two children with him. After Scott's death, Marsh married Cliff Henderson
Cliff Henderson
Clifford "Cliff" Henderson was one of the early organizers of the National Air Races, and managed the races from 1928 through 1939. In 1931, he convinced businessman Vincent Bendix to sponsor the Bendix Trophy Race, a transcontinental speed dash open to men and women. Henderson was awarded the...
, an aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
pioneer and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
and moved to Palm Desert, California
Palm Desert, California
Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census, up from 41,155 at the 2000 census...
, a town Henderson founded in the 1940s.
In the 1960s Marian founded Desert Beautiful, a non-profit, all volunteer conservation organization to promote environmental and beautification programs. Cliff Henderson died in 1984 and Marian Henderson remained in Palm Desert until her death, aged 93. She is buried at Desert Memorial Park
Desert Memorial Park
Desert Memorial Park is a cemetery in Cathedral City, California, United States, near Palm Springs. It is maintained by the Palm Springs Cemetery District...
in Cathedral City, California
Cathedral City, California
Cathedral City is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 51,200 at the 2010 census. Sandwiched between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, it is one of the cities in the Coachella Valley of southern California...
.