Barbara Read

Barbara Read was a Canadian-American film actress who worked in the 1930s and 1940s and appeared in 21 films. Born in Port Arthur, Ontario, she moved to California in the mid-1930s, where a screen test won her a six-month contract; when that brought no roles, she spent two years with the Laguna Beach Players, acting in a new play each month. Her first screen role came in the 1936 comedy Three Smart Girls, where she played one of the three main girls alongside Deanna Durbin and Nan Grey. She made nine films between 1937 and 1939, notably starring in The Spellbinder with Lee Tracy, then 11 more from 1940 to 1948. Her best remembered part was Margo Lane, played in three Shadow films of 1946 opposite Kane Richmond: The Shadow Returns, Behind the Mask and The Missing Lady. Her last role was in the 1948 Western Coroner Creek, with Randolph Scott and Marguerite Chapman.