Barbara La Marr

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Birth Name: Reatha Dale Watson

Born: 28 July 1896 Died: 30 January 1926

Country of origin: United States

Height: 5' 4"

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Premature Deaths (Actors and Actresses) (133 items)
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Pin-Ups (early 1900s) (27 items)
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Published 11 years, 7 months ago

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Silent Actresses (507 items)
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Published 14 years, 10 months ago

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Barbara La Marr

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Description: Reatha Watson (Barbara La Marr) is most famous as one of the first drug-related deaths in Hollywood, but she is notable for many other reasons. Born in Yakima, Washington, her parents moved to the Imperial Valley in California, where Reatha began her explorations of Los Angeles as a teenager. After several disastrous marriages she worked as a burlesque dancer until she married vaudeville actor Ben Deeley. They moved to New York, where Reatha (under the name Folly Lytell) wrote six scenarios for Fox. She made the successful leap from writer to actress in Douglas Fairbanks' The Nut (1921/I), and her career skyrocketed under her ne Reatha Watson (Barbara La Marr) is most famous as one of the first drug-related deaths in Hollywood, but she is notable for many other reasons. Born in Yakima, Washington, her parents moved to the Imperial Valley in California, where Reatha began her explorations of Los Angeles as a teenager. After several disastrous marriages she worked as a burlesque dancer until she married vaudeville actor Ben Deeley. They moved to New York, where Reatha (under the name Folly Lytell) wrote six scenarios for Fox. She made the successful leap from writer to actress in Douglas Fairbanks' The Nut (1921/I), and her career skyrocketed under her new name of Barbara La Marr (she adopted the alias because of a scandal when she was arrested in the late Teens, and called by the judge "too beautiful to be alone in a big city"). Barbara Marr lived extravagantly. After an affair with John Gilbert, her career went into a decline and her contract with Metro was terminated. She went to New York, where drugs and alcohol brought on tuberculosis, from which she died in January of 1926. The official studio press release blamed her death on "vigorous dieting". Her adopted son, Marvin, was adopted by La Marr's best friend, Zasu Pitts.

Barbara La Marr was born in Yakima, Washington, on July 28, 1896, as Reatha Watson. Her childhood was mostly uneventful, mainly because Yakima--today a medium-sized city with a population of over 50, 000-wasn't exactly a beehive of activity. Her parents eventually moved to the Los Angeles area, where she began to explore the show business lifestyle in whatever form she could. Barbara loved the L.A. way of living and was forced to grow up fast. She was still Reatha at the time, but her arrest for dancing in burlesque while still a teen caused her to change her name to Barbara La Marr to avoid being associated with her past. Her passion was dancing and writing, but the powers-that-be in the movie industry thought she was meant for other things--her dazzling beauty captured the imagination of all who came across her path. Moving to New York, she was ultimately lured into the film world, her first picture being Harriet and the Piper (1920). She was still going by her married name of Barbara Deely (already working to shed her fourth husband) and was being dubbed "The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful." The next year she appeared in The Three Musketeers (1921) and Desperate Trails (1921). While the pictures were mediocre at best, it was her role as Claudine Dupree in The Nut (1921/I) that sent Barbara into superstardom. Hordes of fans flocked to theaters to see this beautiful actress in movies such as Arabian Love (1922), Trifling Women (1922), Domestic Relations (1922) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) whose beauty kept them enthralled. In 1923, she kept up her frenzied filming pace with such pictures as Poor Men's Wives (1923), The Brass Bottle (1923) and Souls for Sale (1923). The public adored her, as evidenced by the volumes of fan mail she received, but Barbara was more interested in the late-night partying she was involved with. The combination of alcohol and drugs was, clearly, beginning to wear her down. She made four films in 1924 and three in 1925. Her last picture was The Girl from Montmartre (1926). On February 2, 1926, Barbara died of tuberculosis in Altadena, California. Her demise was, no doubt, brought about by her constant late-night partying. She had lived a lifetime and had made 30 films, but was only 29 when she died.

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