--- name: "Genevieve Tobin" canonical: "https://film.one/person/genevieve-tobin" roles: ["Actor"] born: "27 November 1899" died: "21 July 1995" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-19T21:57:50.391283+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." --- # Genevieve Tobin Actor. Born 27 November 1899 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 21 July 1995. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 27 November 1899, New York City, New York, USA - **Died:** 21 July 1995 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genevieve_Tobin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1273515, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864931/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/81167 ## Fi1m on Genevieve Tobin > Genevieve Tobin was the pre-Code third wheel: the friend who climbs into the husband’s taxi and starts on her stockings. She played the type with more relish than it needed, and Hollywood rarely gave her anything larger to do with it. Mitzi Olivier gets into a Paris taxi in the opening minutes of *One Hour with You* (1932), finds a married doctor already sitting in it, and begins adjusting her stockings. Chevalier turns to the camera to tell us he is not interested. Genevieve Tobin does not turn to anyone. She keeps her eyes on him and her hands on the stocking, and leaves us to work out for ourselves how the rest of the film is going to go. It is a small part in a picture that belongs to its leading man, and she is the liveliest thing in it. That was the job she was hired for. Tobin came to Hollywood in the early 1930s after a long stage career: a child actress in New York around 1910, then Broadway through the 1920s, with her biggest stage success in *Fifty Million Frenchmen* in 1929. She said later that starting on the stage and moving to pictures “has done me no harm”, and on the evidence it did not. The films gave her leading roles at first and then supporting ones, nearly always in comedy, nearly always as the woman who is not the wife. The type was flirtatious, self-involved and better dressed than everyone around her, and she played it with obvious relish. What works is the timing. In the Lubitsch film she never plays Mitzi as a villain; she plays her as a woman having a wonderful time, and the comedy comes from how little she cares who notices. We found ourselves, against our better judgement, rather hoping she would get her way, which tells you how the part was pitched and how well she pitched it. What works less well is everything the type could not carry. She was praised in her day more for her looks and her clothes than for depth, and even people who liked her thought of her as a medium-weight performer. She could be worldly and bored to good effect, as the wife in *The Petrified Forest* (1936), and she did a turn as Della Street in *The Case of the Lucky Legs* (1935), but after the mid-1930s the parts shrank to second leads and the standout chances stopped coming. She made her last film, *No Time for Comedy*, in 1940, directed by William Keighley, with whom she worked four times, and then stopped. Start with *One Hour with You*. It is a Chevalier picture and it knows it, but every time Tobin walks into a scene the film has to decide whether to look at him or at her, and for a few seconds it always chooses her. ## Biography Genevieve Tobin was an American actress. She played Mitzi Olivier in the film *One Hour with You* (1932) and appeared as Mrs. Chisholm in *The Petrified Forest* (1936). Tobin began her career as a child performer and later worked extensively on the New York stage. Her Broadway credits included Cordelia in a 1923 production of *King Lear* and a role in the 1929 musical *Fifty Million Frenchmen*. She appeared in numerous comedy films during the 1930s, often in supporting roles opposite stars including Jeanette MacDonald, Cary Grant and Warren William. Tobin married director William Keighley in 1938 and retired from acting soon afterwards. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, latimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *One Hour with You* (1932), Fi1m 77, as Mitzi Olivier — [page](https://film.one/film/one-hour-with-you.md) ## Complete filmography (41) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *No Time for Comedy* (1940), as Amanda 'Mandy' Swift - *Our Neighbors - The Carters* (1939), as Gloria Hastings - *Yes, My Darling Daughter* (1939), as Connie Nevins - *Zaza* (1939), as Florianne - *Dramatic School* (1938), as Gina Bertier - *Kate Plus Ten* (1938), as Kate Westhanger - *The Duke Comes Back* (1937), as Pauline Corbin - *The Great Gambini* (1937), as Nancy Randall - *The Man in the Mirror* (1936), as Helen - *Snowed Under* (1936), as Alice Merritt - *The Petrified Forest* (1936), as Mrs. Edith Chisholm - *Broadway Hostess* (1935), as Iris Marvin - *The Case of the Lucky Legs* (1935), as Della Street - *Here's to Romance* (1935), as Kathleen Gerard - *The Goose and the Gander* (1935), as Betty Summers - *The Woman in Red* (1935), as Mrs. 'Nicko' Nicholas - *By Your Leave* (1934), as Ellen Smith - *Kiss and Make-Up* (1934), as Eve Caron - *Uncertain Lady* (1934), as Doris Crane - *Success at Any Price* (1934), as Agnes Carter - *Hollywood on Parade No. B-1* (1934), Actor - *The 9th Guest* (1934), as Jean Trent - *Dark Hazard* (1934), as Marge Mayhew Turner - *Easy to Love* (1934), as Carol - *I Loved a Woman* (1933), as Martha Lane Hayden - *Golden Harvest* (1933), as Cynthia Flint - *Goodbye Again* (1933), as Julie Clochessy Wilson - *The Wrecker* (1933), as Mary Regan - *Infernal Machine* (1933), as Elinor Green - *Pleasure Cruise* (1933), as Shirley Poole - *Perfect Understanding* (1933), as Kitty Drayton - *Hollywood Speaks* (1932), as Gertie Smith - *The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood* (1932), as Genevieve Tobin - *One Hour with You* (1932), as Mitzi Olivier — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/one-hour-with-you.md) - *The Gay Diplomat* (1931), as Countess Dorchy - *Up for Murder* (1931), as Myra Deane - *Seed* (1931), as Mildred - *Free Love* (1930), as Hope Ferrier - *A Lady Surrenders* (1930), as Mary - *The Voice of Hollywood* (1930), Actor - *The Country Cousin* (1919), as Eleanor Howitt ## Gallery - ![Genevieve Tobin](https://film.one/media/person/1225682/gallery-e82bc816aeb5.jpg) Genevieve Tobin — Movie studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Genevieve_Tobin_-_publicity.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Genevieve Tobin photographed circa late 1930s (1938)](https://film.one/media/person/1225682/gallery-6787305ae470.jpg) Genevieve Tobin photographed circa late 1930s (1938) — George Hurrell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Genevieve_Tobin.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![American actress Genevieve Tobin (1930)](https://film.one/media/person/1225682/gallery-dfa3f98f548b.jpg) American actress Genevieve Tobin (1930) — Elmer Fryer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Genevieve_Tobin_by_Elmer_Fryer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![A smiling young white woman with dark hair parted center, wearing a white lace collar (1920)](https://film.one/media/person/1225682/gallery-6f78b8a7d823.png) A smiling young white woman with dark hair parted center, wearing a white lace collar (1920) — Tobin: Alfred Cheney Johnston; Sewell: Old Masters Studio; Risdon: Strauss Payton; Texas: no photographer credited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/GenevieveTobin1920.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Genevieve Tobin](https://film.one/media/person/1225682/gallery-9839df8e43dd.jpg) Genevieve Tobin — Image via TMDB - ![Genevieve Tobin](https://film.one/media/person/1225682/gallery-86f2174779e9.jpg) Genevieve Tobin — Image via TMDB - ![Actress Genevieve Tobin (1921)](https://film.one/media/person/1225682/gallery-7446f2056ccc.jpg) Actress Genevieve Tobin (1921) — Edward Thayer Monroe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Genevieve_Tobin_-_Theatre_Magazine_1921-03.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Genevieve Tobin and Conrad Nagel in Free Love](https://film.one/media/person/1225682/gallery-f83a725bc887.jpg) Genevieve Tobin and Conrad Nagel in Free Love — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Genevieve_Tobin_and_Conrad_Nagel_-_Free_Love_%281930%29_%2854872749653%29.jpg/1280px-Genevieve_Tobin_and_Conrad_Nagel_-_Free_Love_%281930%29_%2854872749653%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) --- © 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/genevieve-tobin