Mary Brian (1906-2002) Mary Brian, one of the loveliest romantic leading ladies of the '20s and '30s, and who co-starred with such celebrated leading men as Gary Cooper, Frederic March, Henry Fonda and James Cagney, died of heart failure on December 30 at her home in Del Mar, California. She was 96.

She was born Louise Byrdie Dantzler in Corsicana, Texas, on February 17, 1906. She moved with her family in the early '20s to Long Beach, where she entered a beauty contest. Although, she didn't win, she did catch the attention of a talent scout from Paramount, who was looking for a young ingenue to cast as the lead in Herbert Brenon's movie adaptation of the J.M. Barrie's classic Peter Pan (1924). Unfortunately, Brian lost that part to Betty Bronson, and was instead cast as Wendy. Still, when the film opened on December 1924 in New York City, it was a huge critical and commercial success, and resulted in a long-term contract for Louise - who would now be known as Mary Brian - at Paramount Pictures.

Brian followed the role up with two more popular films by Brenon including: The Street of Forgotten Men (1925), a rich drama of the Bowery set in the 1890s, and the classic silent version of Beau Geste (1926). With the coming of sound, Mary adapted beautifully to the medium with her lively portrayal of the frontier heroine in her first all-talkie opposite Gary Cooper in The Virginian (1929).

By the '30s, Brian proved herself to be a very capable actress in a string of hits: George Cukor's delightful comedy The Royal Family of Broadway (1930) opposite Frederic March; Lewis Milestone's fast-paced farce The Front Page (1931) with Pat O'Brien; Mervyn LeRoy's vivid melodrama Hard to Handle (1933), co-starring James Cagney; a delightful comic turn in the classic W.C. Fields' farce The Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935) as his faithful daughter; and most impressively, a tough, uncharacteristic performance as a seductive femme fatale in Raoul Walsh's underrated Spendthrift (1936), one of Henry Fonda's first starring vehicles.

Brian soon retired by the '40s, reappearing in a few low-budget features, the last of which was Dragnet (1947). That year she married film editor George Tomasini, a respected film editor who worked on many of Alfred Hitchcock's best films: Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), Vertigo(1958), and Psycho (1960), to name but a few. After her husband's death in 1964, Brian devoted herself to painting portraits. Her subjects included many of her Hollywood friends, such as Hitchcock and comedian Red Skelton. Ms. Brian has left no known survivors.

by Michael T. Toole