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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". Date of Death: 11 December 1963, Laguna Beach, California (suicide)
as Abbie Miles (as Barbara Reed)
as Martha Higby (as Barbara Reed)
as Peggy Sullivan (as Barbara Reed)
as Margo Lane
as Mitzi
as Margo Lane
as Margo Lane
as Mary Dale
as Linda Pearson
as Helen Middleton
as Helen Yates
as Janet Marlowe
as Dotty Spencer
as Claire Saunders
as Patricia Hammond
as Clarice Stockbridge
as Nan
as Lucy
as Rhoda Cooper
as Aileen Fenno
as Kay Craig
