--- name: "Deanna Durbin" canonical: "https://film.one/person/deanna-durbin" roles: ["Actor"] born: "4 December 1921" died: "20 April 2013" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-19T23:32:42.636839+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Deanna Durbin Actor. Born 4 December 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Died 20 April 2013. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 4 December 1921, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - **Died:** 20 April 2013 - **Active:** 1936–1937 - **Also known as:** Edna Mae Durbin - **Frequently works with:** [Henry Koster](https://film.one/person/henry-koster.md), [Joe Pasternak](https://film.one/person/joe-pasternak.md) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deanna_Durbin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q236987, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002052/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/95622 ## Fi1m on Deanna Durbin > Deanna Durbin sang as if it cost her nothing and looked at whoever was nearest rather than at the lens, and Universal spent twelve years making much the same film around her. The ease is a pleasure; the repetition a waste. Fourteen years old, in a sailing boat on a Swiss lake, Deanna Durbin opens *Three Smart Girls* (1936) by singing, and the surprising thing is how little she makes of it. She does not lift her chin to the camera or open her arms. She looks at whoever is nearest, sings as though it costs her nothing, and stops when the song stops. We had braced ourselves for a child soprano in a 1936 comedy, and instead we sat back; it was the lack of fuss that did it. When she is not singing she is bossy, quick and impertinent, and the film has the sense to let her be a nuisance rather than a saint. That was her first feature, made for the producer Joe Pasternak and directed by Henry Koster, both émigrés, and it made her a star at Universal. It also fixed the pattern. Pasternak produced ten of her films and Koster directed six, and in most of them she plays a plucky girl who puts helpless adults to rights through stubbornness and song: *One Hundred Men and a Girl* (1937), with Leopold Stokowski, and *It Started with Eve* (1941), opposite Charles Laughton, the last picture she made with both men. She had a clear lyric soprano and was handed popular songs and arias alike. The comedies suited her; she had timing, and she got on with her co-stars on screen. The trouble is that Universal kept her fourteen. She grew up and the parts did not, and she said so: "I'm tired of playing little girls. I'm a woman now. I can't run around forever being the Little Miss Fix It who bursts into song." She tried to get out. *Christmas Holiday* (1944), for Robert Siodmak, put her in a dark drama; *Lady on a Train* (1945), directed by Charles David, tried mystery and comedy in the same film. We have not reviewed either, so we will not judge them here, but that they stand out as exceptions tells you how the studio saw her. In 1948, in her mid-twenties, she stopped acting, and she never came back. What survives is the ease. She does not play to the back row, and that is why *Three Smart Girls* still feels like company rather than a recital, and why it is worth an evening. Start there. If the voice takes you, go on to the Koster comedies, and try not to spend the evening wondering what else she might have been allowed to do. ## Biography Deanna Durbin, born Edna Mae Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer. She made her feature film debut as Penny Craig in *Three Smart Girls* (1936) for Universal Pictures, following a short with Judy Garland. She starred in a series of successful musicals for the studio in the late 1930s and 1940s, including *One Hundred Men and a Girl* (1937) and *It Started with Eve* (1941). Her work was credited with helping Universal avoid bankruptcy, and she received a special Academy Juvenile Award in 1938, shared with Mickey Rooney. Durbin retired from acting after *For the Love of Mary* (1948) and settled in France with her third husband, director Charles David. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, nytimes.com, encyclopedia.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Three Smart Girls* (1936), Fi1m 72, as Penny Craig — [page](https://film.one/film/three-smart-girls.md) ## Complete filmography (24) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1940s: Stars, Stripes and Singing* (2009), as (archive footage) - *That's Entertainment!* (1974), as (archive footage) (uncredited) - *For the Love of Mary* (1948), as Mary Peppertree - *Up in Central Park* (1948), as Rosie Moore - *Something in the Wind* (1947), as Mary Collins - *I'll Be Yours* (1947), as Louise Ginglebusher - *Because of Him* (1946), as Kim Walker - *Lady on a Train* (1945), as Nikki Collins / Margo Martin - *Can't Help Singing* (1944), as Caroline Frost - *Christmas Holiday* (1944), as Jackie Lamont / Abigail Martin - *His Butler's Sister* (1943), as Ann Carter - *Hers to Hold* (1943), as Penelope “Penny” Craig - *The Amazing Mrs. Holliday* (1943), as Ruth Kirke Holliday - *It Started with Eve* (1941), as Anne Terry - *Nice Girl?* (1941), as Jane 'Pinky' Dana - *Spring Parade* (1940), as Ilonka Tolnay - *It's a Date* (1940), as Pamela Drake - *First Love* (1939), as Constance (Connie) Harding - *Three Smart Girls Grow Up* (1939), as Penny Craig - *That Certain Age* (1938), as Alice Fullerton - *Mad About Music* (1938), as Gloria Harkinson - *One Hundred Men and a Girl* (1937), as Patricia Cardwell - *Three Smart Girls* (1936), as Penny Craig — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/three-smart-girls.md) - *Every Sunday* (1936), as Edna ## Gallery - ![Deanna Durbin](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-21a56e5bf7db.jpg) Deanna Durbin — Gwenn Walters, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Deanna_Durbin.jpg/1280px-Deanna_Durbin.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Studio publicity still of Deanna Durbin for the film I'll Be Yours (1947)](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-1ddd626f6328.jpg) Studio publicity still of Deanna Durbin for the film I'll Be Yours (1947) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Deanna_Durbin_I%27ll_Be_Yours_1947.jpg/1280px-Deanna_Durbin_I%27ll_Be_Yours_1947.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![18 year old Deanna Durbin in 1939](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-d6319ce11e5a.jpg) 18 year old Deanna Durbin in 1939 — Toronto Star, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Deanna_Durbin_1939.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Studio publicity still of Deanna Durbin for the American film Lady on a Train (1945).](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-fa152286cb2e.jpg) Studio publicity still of Deanna Durbin for the American film Lady on a Train (1945). — Universal Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Deanna_Durbin_Lady_on_a_Train_1945.jpg/1280px-Deanna_Durbin_Lady_on_a_Train_1945.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Deanna Durbin](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-2458a861aace.jpg) Deanna Durbin — Image via TMDB - ![Deanna Durbin](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-afbfd30fbd67.jpg) Deanna Durbin — Image via TMDB - ![Deanna Durbin](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-851aca2b2c6f.jpg) Deanna Durbin — Image via TMDB - ![Deanna Durbin](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-8c4f232dd253.jpg) Deanna Durbin — Image via TMDB - ![Deanna Durbin](https://film.one/media/person/1229539/gallery-7d921c852cce.jpg) Deanna Durbin — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won - Academy Juvenile Award 1939: Academy Juvenile Award (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/deanna-durbin