Marjorie Reynolds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marjorie Reynolds (b. August 12, 1917, Buhl, Idaho -February 1, 1997, Manhattan Beach, California) was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 70 films.
Born Marjorie Goodspeed, in Buhl, Idaho, as her parents made the cross-country trip from Maine to settle in California, she was featured as a child actress in silent films such as Scaramouche (1923). Her first speaking role was in Murder in Greenwich Village (1937). She also appeared in bit parts in many A-pictures including Gone with the Wind (1939).
Due to the premature death of her mentor, Mark Sandrich, her career never realized its full potential. Her films include Holiday Inn (1942), Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear (1944), Up in Mabel's Room (1944) and the NBC version of the television series The Life of Riley (1953-1958). She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In Holiday Inn, she showed her great ability to dance. Although she is most famously remembered for her duet with Bing Crosby singing the Irving Berlin classic "White Christmas", her singing was dubbed (by Martha Mears, whose voice so matched hers that it has always been thought that Miss Reynolds did her own singing). The studio kept it that way but when asked later in life, Miss Reynolds was always quite open about crediting Miss Mears.
On February 1, 1997, having suffered from congestive heart disease, she collapsed and died in Manhattan Beach, California while walking her dog. She was 79 years old.
