Marilyn Buferd (January 30, 1925 – March 27, 1990) was an American film and television actress as well as the winner of both the Miss California and

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: ''Priva ...

pageants of 1946. During the latter half of the 1940s and throughout the 1950s, she performed in nearly two dozen American, Italian, and French films, including '' Touchez pas au grisbi'' opposite Jean Gabin (1954). Buferd also appeared in several television series originally broadcast in the 1950s, such as '' The Millionaire'', ''

Highway Patrol A highway patrol is a police unit, detail, or law enforcement agency created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways within a jurisdiction. They are also referred to in many countri ...

'', '' Schlitz Playhouse'', '' The Ford Television Theatre'', and ''

Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger luxury train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe, w ...

''.

Biography

Buferd attended the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

. One of the sixteen finalists she defeated in the Miss America 1946 pageant was future Academy Award-winning actress Cloris Leachman. Buferd married Franco Barbaro, an Italian submarine commander and a movie agent and producer. After divorcing she married Hans E. Orton. Her third husband was Milton Stevens. Buferd died of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

at age 65 in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, on March 27, 1990. Her son,

Nick Barbaro Niccolo Raffaele Barbaro (born 1952), better known as Nick Barbaro, is an American journalist and businessman who is the co-founder of ''The Austin Chronicle'' and co-creator of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. Barbaro's contributions have ...

, is publisher of ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'' and co-founder of

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Selected filmography

* '' A Night of Fame'' (1949) * ''

Totò Tarzan ''Totò Tarzan'' is a 1950 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring Totò, Marilyn Buferd and Alba Arnova. It is a parody of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel ''Tarzan of the Apes''. It was shot at the Farnesina Studios in Rome. The ...

'' (1950) *'' The Elusive Twelve'' (1950) * '' I'm the Capataz'' (1951) * '' The Blind Woman of Sorrento'' (1952) * '' Les Belles de nuit'' (1952) directed by

René Clair René Clair (; 11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette (), was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. H ...

* '' The Machine to Kill Bad People'' (1952) directed by

Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such a ...

* '' Touchez pas au grisbi'' (1954) directed by

Jacques Becker Jacques Becker (; 15 September 1906 – 21 February 1960) was a French film director and screenwriter. His films, made during the 1940s and 1950s, encompassed a wide variety of genres, and they were admired by some of the filmmakers who led th ...

* '' The Unearthly'' (1957) * '' Queen of Outer Space'' (1958)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buferd, Marilyn 1925 births 1990 deaths Miss America 1940s delegates Miss America winners Miss America Preliminary Swimsuit winners American film actresses 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Detroit Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Texas