Gertrude Maud Barnes (25 March 1903 – 27 July 1998), known professionally as Binnie Barnes, was an English actress whose career in films spanned from 1923 to 1973. She was known for as a

leading lady A leading actor, leading actress, or leading man or lady or simply lead (), plays a main role in a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person w ...

in films such as ''

The Private Life of Henry VIII ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' is a 1933 British biographical drama film directed and co-produced by Alexander Korda and starring Charles Laughton, Robert Donat, Merle Oberon and Elsa Lanchester. It was written by Lajos Bíró and Arthur ...

'', ''

The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is an 1826 historical romance novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the second book of the '' Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinder'', ...

'', and '' In Old California''.

Early life

Barnes was born in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, London, the daughter of Rosa Enoyce and George Barnes, a policeman; 16 children were in her family. Before moving to Hollywood to become an actress, Barnes worked a series of jobs, such as chorus girl, nurse, and dance hostess.

Career

Binnie Barnes in The Spanish Main trailer

Barnes began her acting career in films in 1923, appearing in a short film made by

Lee De Forest #REDIRECT Lee de Forest {{redirect category shell, {{R from move{{R from other capitalisation ...

in his

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. In 1919 and 1920, de Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofi ...

sound-on-film process. Her film career continued in Great Britain, most notably in ''

'' (1933) as

Katherine Howard Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542) was Queen of England from July 1540 until November 1541 as the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a first cousin to Anne Boleyn (the second ...

, Henry's fifth wife. Barnes' main qualm in accepting roles as an actress was that she not play submissive roles. Barnes once remarked, "One picture is just like another to me, as long as I don't have to be a sweet woman". After she married Mike Frankovich, she moved to Europe with Frankovich and appeared in several films he produced there, including '' Decameron Nights'' with

Louis Jourdan Louis Jourdan (born Louis Robert Gendre; 19 June 1921 – 14 February 2015) was a French film and television actor. He was known for his suave roles in several Hollywood films, including Alfred Hitchcock's '' The Paradine Case'' (1947), '' Let ...

and '' Malaga'' with

Maureen O'Hara Maureen O'Hara (; 17 August 1920 – 24 October 2015) was an Irish-born naturalized American actress who became successful in Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural redhead who was known for playing passionate b ...

and

Macdonald Carey Edward Macdonald Carey (March 15, 1913 – March 21, 1994) was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera '' Days of Our Lives''. For almost three decades, he was the show's central cast membe ...

. Later, her career continued in Hollywood, until 1973, when she appeared in the comedy ''

40 Carats ''Forty Carats'' is a play by Jay Presson Allen. Adapted from the French original by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, the comedy revolves around a 40-year-old American divorcee who is assisted by a 22-year-old when her car breaks down ...

'', her last acting role.

Personal life

Barnes's first husband was London art dealer Samuel Joseph. Her second marriage was to film producer Mike Frankovich, and later she was a naturalised United States citizen. The couple adopted three children. Barnes was an avid swimmer. In 1936, she saved a drowning guest at

William Wyler William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Aca ...

’s pool. Binnie Barnes died on 27 July 1998 of natural causes, aged 95, in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

. She was interred in

Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California, United States. It is the original and current flagship location of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries, a chain of six cemeteries and four additional mortuaries ...

.''The Archaeology of Hollywood''
/ref>

Hollywood Walk of Fame

For her contributions to the film industry, Barnes received a motion pictures star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

in 1960. Her star is located at 1501

Vine Street Vine Street is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, that runs north–south between Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, and Melrose Avenue. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine being symbolic of Hollywood itself. The intersection has be ...

Complete filmography

* ''Phonofilm'' (1923) * '' A Night in Montmartre'' (1931) as Therese * '' Love Lies'' (1931) as Junetta * '' Doctor Josser K.C.'' (1931) as Rosa Wopp * '' Murder at Covent Garden'' (1932) as Girl * '' The Innocents of Chicago'' (1932) as Peg Guinan * '' Partners Please'' (1932 short) as Billie * '' Strip! Strip! Hooray!!!'' (1932 short) as Spanish Lady * '' Down Our Street'' (1932) as Tessie Bernstein * '' The Last Coupon'' (1932) as Mrs. Meredith * '' Old Spanish Customers'' (1932) as Carmen * '' Taxi to Paradise'' (1933 short) as Joan Melhuish * ''

Counsel's Opinion ''Counsel's Opinion'' is a 1933 British romantic comedy film starring Henry Kendall and Binnie Barnes. It was one of three films directed in Britain in the early 1930s by Canadian-American Allan Dwan and was an early production from Alexander ...

'' (1933) as Leslie * '' Heads We Go'' (1933) as Lil Pickering * ''

'' (1933) as Katherine Howard, the Fifth Wife * '' The Silver Spoon'' (1933) as Lady Perivale * '' Their Night Out'' (1933) as Lola * '' Nine Forty-Five'' (1934) as Ruth Jordan * '' No Escape'' (1934) as Myra Fengler * '' The Lady Is Willing'' (1934) as Helene Dupont * '' One Exciting Adventure'' (1934) as Rena Sorel * '' Gift of Gab'' (1934) as Maid * '' The Private Life of Don Juan'' (1934) as Rosita, a Maid Pure and Simple * '' Forbidden Territory'' (1934) as Valerie Petrovna * '' There's Always Tomorrow'' (1934) as Alice Vail * '' Diamond Jim'' (1935) as Lillian Russell * '' Rendezvous'' (1935) as Olivia Kerloff * ''

La Fiesta de Santa Barbara ''La Fiesta de Santa Barbara'' is a 1935 American comedy film, comedy short film directed by Louis Lewyn. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 9th Academy Awards in 1936 for Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, Best Short Subj ...

'' (1935, Short) as Herself * '' Sutter's Gold'' (1936) as Countess Elizabeth Bartoffski * '' Small Town Girl'' (1936) as Priscilla Hyde * ''

'' (1936) as Alice Munro * '' The Magnificent Brute'' (1936) as Della Lane * '' Three Smart Girls'' (1936) as Donna Lyons * '' Breezing Home'' (1937) as Henrietta Fairfax * '' Broadway Melody of 1938'' (1937) as Caroline Whipple * '' Out of the Blue'' (1937) as Rosa * ''

The Divorce of Lady X ''The Divorce of Lady X'' is a 1938 British Technicolor romantic comedy film produced by London Films; it stars Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and Binnie Barnes. It was film director, directed by Tim Whelan and produced by Alex ...

'' (1938) as Lady Mere * '' The First Hundred Years'' (1938) as Claudia Weston * '' The Adventures of Marco Polo'' (1938) as Nazama * ''

Holiday A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. ''Public holidays'' are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often ...

'' (1938) as Mrs. Laura Cram * ''

Three Blind Mice "Three Blind Mice" is an English nursery rhyme and musical round.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 306. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753. ...

'' (1938) as Miriam Harrington * '' Always Goodbye'' (1938) as Harriet Martin * '' Tropic Holiday'' (1938) as Marilyn Joyce * '' Gateway'' (1938) as Mrs. Fay Sims * '' Thanks for Everything'' (1938) as Kay Swift * ''

The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' () is a French historical adventure novel written and published in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is the first of the author's three d'Artagnan Romances. As with some of his other works, he wrote it in col ...

'' (1939) as Milady De Winter * '' Wife, Husband and Friend'' (1939) as Cecil Carver * '' Man About Town'' (1939) as Lady Arlington * '' Frontier Marshal'' (1939) as Jerry * '' Day-Time Wife'' (1939) as Blanche * '' 'Til We Meet Again'' (1940) as Comtesse de Bresac * '' This Thing Called Love'' (1940) as Charlotte Campbell * '' Angels with Broken Wings'' (1941) as Sybil Barton * '' Tight Shoes'' (1941) as Sybil Ash * '' The Great Awakening'' (1941, aka ''New Wine'') as Countess Marie Duvarre * '' Three Girls About Town'' (1941) as Faith Banner * '' Skylark'' (1941) as Myrtle Vantine * '' Call Out the Marines'' (1942) as Violet 'Vi' Hall * '' In Old California'' (1942) as Lacey Miller * '' I Married an Angel'' (1942) as Peggy * '' The Man from Down Under'' (1943) as Aggie Dawlins * '' Up in Mabel's Room'' (1944) as Alicia Larchmont * '' The Hour Before the Dawn'' (1944) as May Heatherton * '' Barbary Coast Gent'' (1944) as Lil Damish * '' It's in the Bag!'' (1945) as Eve Floogle * '' The Spanish Main'' (1945) as Anne Bonney * '' Getting Gertie's Garter'' (1945) as Barbara * ''

The Time of Their Lives ''The Time of Their Lives'' is a 1946 American fantasy comedy film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedic duo Abbott and Costello alongside Marjorie Reynolds, Gale Sondergaard and Binnie Barnes. It was produced and distributed ...

'' (1946) as Mildred Dean * '' If Winter Comes'' (1947) as Natalie Bagshaw * '' The Dude Goes West'' (1948) as Kiki Kelly * '' My Own True Love'' (1948) as Geraldine * '' The Pirates of Capri'' (1949, aka ''The Masked Pirate'') as Queen Maria Carolina * '' Fugitive Lady'' (1950) as Esther Clementi * '' Shadow of the Eagle'' (1950) as Catherine, Empress of Russia * '' Decameron Nights'' (1953) as Contessa di Firenze / Nerina the Chambermaid / The Old Witch * '' Malaga'' (1954) as Frisco * '' The Trouble with Angels'' (1966) as Sister Celestine * ''

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows ''Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows'' is a 1968 American comedy film directed by James Neilson and starring Rosalind Russell, Stella Stevens and Binnie Barnes. Written by Blanche Hanalis, the film is based on a story by Jane Trahey about an orth ...

'' (1968) as Sister Celestine * ''

'' (1973) as Maud Ericson

References

External links

* *
Photographs and literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Binnie 1903 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from London American film actresses American television actresses Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) English film actresses English emigrants to the United States English television actresses Actors from the London Borough of Islington 20th-century English actresses 20th-century English businesspeople 20th Century Studios contract players Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players People from Islington (district)