Marion Martin

Born: 1908-06-07

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marion Martin (born Marion Suplee, June 7, 1909 – August 13, 1985) was an American movie and stage actress. Martin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Bethlehem Steel executive. She became an actress after her family fortune was lost in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and appeared in the Broadway productions Lombardi Ltd. and Sweet Adeline. She made her film debut in She's My Lillie, I'm Her Willie and subsequently played minor roles, often as showgirls. Several of her early roles were in musicals and she achieved some success as a singer. By the end of the decade she had played leading female roles in several "B" pictures, playing one of her most notable roles in James Whale's Sinners in Paradise (1938). Despite her success she was often cast in minor roles in more widely seen films such as His Girl Friday (1940). The majority of her roles were in comedies but she also appeared in dramas such as Boom Town (1940) in which she played a dance hall singer who is briefly romanced by Clark Gable. She played secondary roles in three Lupe Vélez "Mexican Spitfire" films in the early 1940s, and was a comic foil for the Marx Brothers in The Big Store, where the back of her skirt is cut away by Harpo. She played a ghost in Gildersleeve's Ghost, and was the subject of a legendary fistfight between Gildersleeve star Harold Peary and Warner Bros studio mogul Bud Stevens at the Mocambo nightclub in 1943. Her more substantial roles included Alice Angel, a dizzy showgirl, in the murder mystery Lady of Burlesque with Barbara Stanwyck and Angel on My Shoulder. She also appeared in The Big Street with Lucille Ball, in the western The Woman of the Town with Claire Trevor and in The Great Mike at PRC in 1944. By the late 1940s, her roles were often minor. Three Stooges fans will remember her as western cowgirl Gladys in Merry Mavericks. She played "Belle Farnol" in a 1950 episode of The Lone Ranger entitled "Pardon for Curley". Shortly afterward, she made her final film appearance in 1952. Married to a physicist, Martin retired, and although she expressed the desire to return to show business, suitable roles were not offered to her. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures, at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. She died in 1985 in Santa Monica, California, and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.


Placeholder

Invisible Stripes

as Blonde (uncredited)
Released: 1939-12-30

A gangster is unable to go straight after returning home from prison.

Movie page

The Big Store

as Peggy Arden
Released: 1941-06-20

A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department...

Movie page

His Girl Friday

as Evangeline (uncredited)
Released: 1940-01-18

Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s...

Movie page

The Man in the Iron Mask

as Mlle. de la Valliere
Released: 1939-07-13

Tyrannical King Louis XIV learns that he has an identical twin brother, Philippe, who was raised...

Movie page

Tales of Manhattan

as 'Squirrel' Grey
Released: 1942-08-05

Ten screenwriters collaborated on this series of tales concerning the effect a tailcoat cursed...

Movie page

Nobody Lives Forever

as Lou, Blonde (uncredited)
Released: 1946-11-01

A con artist falls for the rich widow he's trying to fleece.

Movie page

Boom Town

as Whitey
Released: 1940-08-30

Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a twenty year period both...

Movie page

It Happened Tomorrow

as Nurse (uncredited)
Released: 1944-03-31

A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This...

Movie page

Black Angel

as Millie
Released: 1946-08-02

A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin team up...

Movie page

The Big Street

as Mimi Venus
Released: 1942-08-13

Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish showgirl who despises and uses him.

Movie page

Angel on My Shoulder

as Mrs. Bentley
Released: 1946-09-20

The Devil arranges for a deceased gangster to return to Earth as a well-respected judge to make...

Movie page

The McGuerins from Brooklyn

as Myrtle
Released: 1942-12-31

Tim McGuerin and Eddie Corbett operates a big taxi-fleet company together and because of a...

Movie page

Cracked Nuts

as Flashy Blonde in Corridor
Released: 1941-07-02

A young man in a small town wins $5000 in a radio contest. He goes to New York City to propose...

Movie page

Come to the Stable

as Rossi's Manicurist (uncredited)
Released: 1949-07-27

Two nuns arrive unannounced in the small New England town of Bethlehem, where they recruit...

Movie page

Lady of Burlesque

as Alice Angel
Released: 1943-05-01

After one member of their group is murdered, the performers at a burlesque house must work...

Movie page

The Storm

as Jane
Released: 1938-10-28

A passenger ship unexpectedly runs into a typhoon.

Movie page

Key to the City

as Emmy
Released: 1950-02-02

At a mayors convention in San Francisco, ex-longshoreman Steve Fisk meets Clarissa Standish from...

Movie page

They Got Me Covered

as Gloria
Released: 1943-03-04

Bumbling reporter Robert Kittredge has been fired after bungling his latest assignment. His...

Movie page

Cinderella Jones

as Burlesque Queen
Released: 1946-03-09

Judy Jones can claim inheritance only if she marries a genius.

Movie page

Deadline for Murder

as Laura Gibson
Released: 1946-06-28

A favor for an old friend leads a Los Angeles gambler (Kent Taylor) into a dangerous search for...

Movie page

Oklahoma Annie

as LaBelle La Tour
Released: 1952-03-24

A spunky storekeeper is determined to clean up corruption in her small town, as well as win the...

Movie page

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood

as Miss Milbane
Released: 1945-10-05

When two bumbling barbers act as agents for a talented but unknown singer, they stage a phony...

Movie page

Suspense

as Shooting Gallery Blond (uncredited)
Released: 1946-06-15

The proprietor of an ice-skating revue promotes a peanut-vendor at the show to a management...

Movie page

Dakota Lil

as Blonde Singer
Released: 1950-02-17

Female outlaw helps lawmen trap railroad bandits.

Movie page

Penthouse Rhythm

as Irma King
Released: 1945-06-22

Musical comedy directed by Edward F. Cline

Movie page

Lady Scarface

as Ruby / Mary Jordan
Released: 1941-09-26

A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason...

Movie page

That Brennan Girl

as Marion, Natalie's Girl Friend (as Marian Martin)
Released: 1946-12-23

Raised by Natalie Brennan, a flamboyant and irresponsible mother, Ziggy Brennan gets involved in...

Movie page

Powder Town

as Sue, Blonde Piano Player
Released: 1942-06-07

Director Rowland V. Lee's wacky 1942 comedy, about an absent-minded scientist working on a...

Movie page

The Mexican Spitfire's Baby

as Fifi
Released: 1941-11-28

An advertising executive and his temperamental wife adopt a war orphan who turns out to be a...

Movie page

Sergeant Madden

as Charlotte LePage
Released: 1939-03-24

A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime.

Movie page

The Great Mike

as Kitty Tremaine
Released: 1944-11-15

Story of a boy and his horse. Mike is the horse and is owned by Speck and his best friend Jimmy,...

Movie page

Sinners in Paradise

as Iris Compton
Released: 1938-05-19

The survivors from a plane crash are washed up on an island where the only inhabitants are Mr....

Movie page

The Merry Monahans

as Soubrette
Released: 1944-09-15

The film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan. Because of his...

Movie page

Invitation to Happiness

as Lola Snow
Released: 1939-06-07

An egotistical boxer romances a rich backer's daughter.

Movie page

The Woman of the Town

as Daisy Davenport
Released: 1943-12-31

Bat Masterson, who after failing to secure a job as a newspaper reporter becomes marshal of...

Movie page

Ellery Queen, Master Detective

as Cornelia
Released: 1940-11-30

Famed detective and crime novelist Ellery Queen solves a case involving the suspicious death of...

Movie page

Blonde Inspiration

as Wanda
Released: 1941-02-07

A writer of pulp Westerns cranks out more words than his editor and publisher want to pay for.

Movie page

On Stage Everybody

as Bubbles (uncredited)
Released: 1945-07-13

Radio's miracle show is on the screen.

Movie page

Thunder in the Pines

as Pearl (as Marian Martin)
Released: 1948-11-11

Loggers Jeff Collins and Boomer Benson compete for a mail-order bride by means of a...

Movie page

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

as Bar Blonde
Released: 1949-11-11

Period musical about a song plugger who vows to turn an opera composer's music into popular hits.

Movie page

The Lady from Cheyenne

as Gertie
Released: 1941-04-11

Fictionalized story of the 1869 adoption of women's suffrage in Wyoming Territory. In the...

Movie page

Lighthouse

as JoJo, the Blonde
Released: 1947-01-10

Two men and a woman form a triangle confined by a lighthouse.

Movie page

Fly-By-Night

as Nurse
Released: 1942-01-19

Young intern Jeff Burton, impulsively offers a lift to an odd-looking gentlemen. It soon turns...

Movie page

Mexican Spitfire at Sea

as Fifi Russell
Released: 1942-03-13

An advertising executive and his temperamental wife sail to Hawaii in search of business. The...

Movie page

Tall, Dark and Handsome

as Dawn
Released: 1941-01-24

Robin Hoodish gangster in 1929 Chicago is an object of affection, kind to New York hood and bad...

Movie page

Mexican Spitfire's Elephant

as Diana De Corro
Released: 1942-09-17

A pair of shipboard smugglers have a large diamond hidden inside a small elephant statuette,...

Movie page

Pirates of the Skies

as uncredited
Released: 1939-01-01

Cafe waitress Barbara Whitney refuses to acknowledge her marriage to Air Policeman Nick Conlon...

Movie page

New Wine

as Mitzi
Released: 1941-09-10

The romantic story of Franz Schubert 's fight for recognition of his music. The 1941 Reinhold...

Movie page

Journey Into Light

as Diana (as Marian Martin)
Released: 1951-09-28

John Burrows, an ordained minister from a small village in the East, envisions himself with a...

Movie page

Crime Without Passion

as Theatre Cashier (uncredited)
Released: 1934-08-30

Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry is going out with Katy Costello, but carrying on an affair with dancer...

Movie page

Eadie Was a Lady

as Rose Allure
Released: 1945-01-24

In this amiable Columbia B musical, society girl Ann Miller escapes her Back Bay family by...

Movie page

Sweethearts of the U.S.A.

as Ghost of Josephine
Released: 1944-03-07

A WW-II defense plant worker gets knocked out and dreams about helping the war effort in various...

Movie page

Girls of the Big House

as Dixie
Released: 1945-11-02

A women's prison provides the setting for this drama that centers around a naive small-town...

Movie page

Queen of Burlesque

as Lola Cassell
Released: 1946-07-24

Various performers and backstage crew come under suspicion when a dancer is found murdered at a...

Movie page

Should Husbands Marry?

as Loud Friend's Girlfriend
Released: 1947-11-13

Hugh's loudmouth pal crashes a dinner party Hugh is throwing for his boss.

Movie page

Weekend for Three

as Mrs. Gloria Weatherby
Released: 1941-12-12

Jim is hardly thrilled when his new bride, Ellen, invites an old friend, Randy, over for dinner....

Movie page

Mystery of the Riverboat

as Celeste Eltree [Chs. 1-4, 7]
Released: 1944-10-24

A movie serial in 13 chapters: Some swampland becomes valuable, and various factions squabble...

Movie page

The Phantom Speaks

as Betty Hanzel
Released: 1945-04-13

The spirit of an executed murderer enters the body of a physician, and forces him to do its...

Movie page

Gildersleeve's Ghost

as Terry Vance
Released: 1944-06-01

Gildersleeve, running for office, is aided by two ghosts and hindered by a mad scientist and an...

Movie page

Youth Takes a Fling

as Girl on Beach
Released: 1938-09-22

McCrea plays Joe Meadows, whose only ambition as a Kansas farm boy was a life at sea. He moves...

Movie page

Merry Mavericks

as Gladys
Released: 1951-09-06

Set in the old west, the stooges are mistaken for lawmen and manage to capture a gang of crooks....

Movie page

Gangs of the Waterfront

as Rita (as Marian Martin)
Released: 1945-07-03

Gang Leader Dutch Malone goes on a hunting trip and is in a car wreck and is confined to the...

Movie page

Blondes and Blunders

as Blondie, Jewel Thief
Released: 1940-11-29

A beautiful blonde places a stolen diamond on an unsuspecting man. Later, she returns to...

Movie page

Mr. W's Little Game

as The Blonde
Released: 1934-01-01

As the rather fussy 'Mr. W' is dining in a restaurant, the waiter introduces him to an...

Movie page

Moon Over Manhattan

as uncredited
Released: 1935-02-15

A musical short about a young couple, an artist for an advertising firm and a hopeful model....

Movie page