Marion Martin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marion Martin (born Marion Suplee, June 7, 1909 – August 13, 1985) was an American movie and stage actress.
Martin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Bethlehem Steel executive. She became an actress after her family fortune was lost in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and appeared in the Broadway productions Lombardi Ltd. and Sweet Adeline.
She made her film debut in She's My Lillie, I'm Her Willie and subsequently played minor roles, often as showgirls. Several of her early roles were in musicals and she achieved some success as a singer. By the end of the decade she had played leading female roles in several "B" pictures, playing one of her most notable roles in James Whale's Sinners in Paradise (1938). Despite her success she was often cast in minor roles in more widely seen films such as His Girl Friday (1940). The majority of her roles were in comedies but she also appeared in dramas such as Boom Town (1940) in which she played a dance hall singer who is briefly romanced by Clark Gable. She played secondary roles in three Lupe Vélez "Mexican Spitfire" films in the early 1940s, and was a comic foil for the Marx Brothers in The Big Store, where the back of her skirt is cut away by Harpo.
She played a ghost in Gildersleeve's Ghost, and was the subject of a legendary fistfight between Gildersleeve star Harold Peary and Warner Bros studio mogul Bud Stevens at the Mocambo nightclub in 1943. Her more substantial roles included Alice Angel, a dizzy showgirl, in the murder mystery Lady of Burlesque with Barbara Stanwyck and Angel on My Shoulder. She also appeared in The Big Street with Lucille Ball, in the western The Woman of the Town with Claire Trevor and in The Great Mike at PRC in 1944.
By the late 1940s, her roles were often minor. Three Stooges fans will remember her as western cowgirl Gladys in Merry Mavericks. She played "Belle Farnol" in a 1950 episode of The Lone Ranger entitled "Pardon for Curley". Shortly afterward, she made her final film appearance in 1952. Married to a physicist, Martin retired, and although she expressed the desire to return to show business, suitable roles were not offered to her.
She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures, at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. She died in 1985 in Santa Monica, California, and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 1.819 |
Birthday | 1908-06-07 |
Place of Birth | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
Also Known As | Marion Suplee, Marian Martin, |
1946
Black Angel
6/49
A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a...
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Black Angel
1946
Angel on My Shoulder
6.419/37
The Devil arranges for a deceased gangster to return to Earth as a well-respected judge to make up for his previous life.
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Angel on My Shoulder
1946
Suspense
6.3/17
The proprietor of an ice-skating revue promotes a peanut-vendor at the show to a management position based on suggestions he made to improve the act o...
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Suspense
1942
Tales of Manhattan
6.2/30
Ten screenwriters collaborated on this series of tales concerning the effect a tailcoat cursed by its tailor has on those who wear it. The video relea...
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Tales of Manhattan
1938
Cupid Takes a Holiday
0/0
Because his family has a history of insanity that breaks out when a family member hasn't married by the time they are 25 years old, Nikolai Nikolaevic...
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Cupid Takes a Holiday
1939
The Man in the Iron Mask
7.1/25
Tyrannical King Louis XIV learns that he has an identical twin brother, Philippe, who was raised from birth by his late father's trusted friend D'Arta...
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The Man in the Iron Mask
1940
Ellery Queen, Master Detective
5.7/3
Famed detective and crime novelist Ellery Queen solves a case involving the suspicious death of a rich man whose inheritors fight over his estate.
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Ellery Queen, Master Detective
1943
Lady of Burlesque
5.4/37
After one member of their group is murdered, the performers at a burlesque house must work together to find out who the killer is before they strike a...
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Lady of Burlesque
1939
Invitation to Happiness
0/0
An egotistical boxer romances a rich backer's daughter.
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Invitation to Happiness
1941
Tall, Dark and Handsome
5.4/6
Robin Hoodish gangster in 1929 Chicago is an object of affection, kind to New York hood and bad to a bad crook.
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Tall, Dark and Handsome
1941
Lady Scarface
5.1/11
A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason takes the case, continuing his friendly-enemy relationsh...
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Lady Scarface
1942
The Big Street
5.8/18
Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish nightclub singer who despises and uses him.
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The Big Street
1947
Should Husbands Marry?
2/1
Hugh's loudmouth pal crashes a dinner party Hugh is throwing for his boss.
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Should Husbands Marry?
1947
Lighthouse
4.5/4
Two men and a woman form a triangle confined by a lighthouse.
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Lighthouse
1946
Deadline for Murder
0/0
A favor for an old friend leads a Los Angeles gambler (Kent Taylor) into a dangerous search for a missing document.
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Deadline for Murder
1945
Gangs of the Waterfront
6/1
Gang Leader Dutch Malone goes on a hunting trip and is in a car wreck and is confined to the hospital, without the knowledge of any of his gang member...
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Gangs of the Waterfront
1951
Merry Mavericks
5/3
Set in the old west, the stooges are mistaken for lawmen and manage to capture a gang of crooks. The boys then get the job of guarding some money in a...
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Merry Mavericks
1938
Sinners in Paradise
5.3/10
The survivors from a plane crash are washed up on an island where the only inhabitants are Mr. Taylor and his servant, Ping. The mismatched group must...
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Sinners in Paradise
1942
The McGuerins from Brooklyn
5/1
Tim McGuerin and Eddie Corbett operates a big taxi-fleet company together and because of a misunderstanding Tim's wife Sadie thinks he is having an af...
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The McGuerins from Brooklyn
1939
Sergeant Madden
6/1
A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime.
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Sergeant Madden
1944
Gildersleeve's Ghost
5/5
Gildersleeve, running for office, is aided by two ghosts and hindered by a mad scientist and an invisible woman.
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Gildersleeve's Ghost
1946
Queen of Burlesque
0/0
Various performers and backstage crew come under suspicion when a dancer is found murdered at a burlesque theatre.
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Queen of Burlesque
1942
Mexican Spitfire at Sea
3/4
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife sail to Hawaii in search of business. The fifth entry (of eight) in the "Mexican Spitfire" comedy...
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Mexican Spitfire at Sea
1944
The Merry Monahans
5.5/4
The film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan. Because of his love affair with the bottle, Pete manages to get himself...
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The Merry Monahans
1941
Weekend for Three
5.7/3
Jim is hardly thrilled when his new bride, Ellen, invites an old friend, Randy, over for dinner. Yet Jim turns genuinely dismayed once Randy arrives a...
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Weekend for Three
1938
The Miss They Missed
0/0
Professor Pierre is assigned to find a missing heiress whose fortune will go to a worthless relative if she isn't found. He uses most of his dialect a...
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The Miss They Missed
1941
The Mexican Spitfire's Baby
4.3/7
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife adopt a war orphan who turns out to be a beautiful woman.
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The Mexican Spitfire's Baby
1952
Oklahoma Annie
8/2
A spunky storekeeper is determined to clean up corruption in her small town, as well as win the heart of the new sheriff. Comedy.
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Oklahoma Annie
1944
Mystery of the Riverboat
6/1
A movie serial in 13 chapters: Some swampland becomes valuable, and various factions squabble over ownership of it.
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Mystery of the Riverboat
1950
Key to the City
6.1/8
At a mayors convention in San Francisco, ex-longshoreman Steve Fisk meets Clarissa Standish from New England. Fisk is mayor of "Puget City" and is pro...
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Key to the City
1944
The Great Mike
0/0
Story of a boy and his horse. Mike is the horse and is owned by Speck and his best friend Jimmy, together they have a paper route, on which they deliv...
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The Great Mike
1940
Boom Town
6.9/51
Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a twenty year period both love the same woman. McMasters and Sand come to oil t...
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Boom Town
1934
Mr. W's Little Game
5/3
As the rather fussy 'Mr. W' is dining in a restaurant, the waiter introduces him to an attractive woman, who sits down at his table. She asks him to t...
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Mr. W's Little Game
1934
She's My Lilly, I'm Her Willie
0/0
A star goes on a cruise under a false name to enjoy his vacation. When people accidently believe he is a wanted criminal he performs a few acts to pro...
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She's My Lilly, I'm Her Willie
1942
Mexican Spitfire's Elephant
5.2/6
A pair of shipboard smugglers have a large diamond hidden inside a small elephant statuette, which they plant on absentminded Lord Epping to get it pa...
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Mexican Spitfire's Elephant
1943
They Got Me Covered
5.9/9
Bumbling reporter Robert Kittredge has been fired after bungling his latest assignment. His career isn't all he's botched up: his girlfriend Chris is...
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They Got Me Covered
1945
The Phantom Speaks
5.375/8
The spirit of an executed murderer enters the body of a physician, and forces him to do its bidding--namely, murder.
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The Phantom Speaks
1938
Youth Takes a Fling
1/1
McCrea plays Joe Meadows, whose only ambition as a Kansas farm boy was a life at sea. He moves to New York to try to get a job as a sailor, finds it m...
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Youth Takes a Fling
1941
The Big Store
6.254/65
A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department store, from the store's crooked manager.
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The Big Store
1939
Pirates of the Skies
0/0
Cafe waitress Barbara Whitney refuses to acknowledge her marriage to Air Policeman Nick Conlon until he upgrades his career. He does so by infiltratin...
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Pirates of the Skies
1946
Cinderella Jones
3.3/3
Judy Jones can claim inheritance only if she marries a genius.
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Cinderella Jones
1949
Come to the Stable
6.3/23
Two nuns arrive unannounced in the small New England town of Bethlehem, where they recruit various townspeople to help them build a children's hospita...
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Come to the Stable
1945
Girls of the Big House
6/1
A women's prison provides the setting for this drama that centers around a naive small-town woman framed by a man whom she met in a nightclub in the b...
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Girls of the Big House
1940
His Girl Friday
7.4/821
Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wi...
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His Girl Friday
1950
Dakota Lil
5/4
Female outlaw helps lawmen trap railroad bandits.
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Dakota Lil
1944
It Happened Tomorrow
6.7/57
A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new...
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It Happened Tomorrow
1938
His Exciting Night
3/1
A milquetoast clerk is betrothed to the socialite whose aunt holds a big account with his company.
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His Exciting Night
1941
The Lady from Cheyenne
5.2/3
Fictionalized story of the 1869 adoption of women's suffrage in Wyoming Territory. In the new-founded railroad town of Laraville, Boss Jim Cork hopes...
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The Lady from Cheyenne
1946
That Brennan Girl
5.3/10
Raised by Natalie Brennan, a flamboyant and irresponsible mother, Ziggy Brennan gets involved in hustling men at a young age. She hangs around with a...
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That Brennan Girl
1943
The Woman of the Town
6/3
Bat Masterson, who after failing to secure a job as a newspaper reporter becomes marshal of Dodge City. Preferring socializing to peacekeeping, Master...
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The Woman of the Town
1940
Untamed
4.3/3
A courageous doctor braves a fierce blizzard in the Canadian wilderness to save a remote community from a deadly epidemic. He has come North to visit...
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Untamed
1948
Thunder in the Pines
5/2
Loggers Jeff Collins and Boomer Benson compete for a mail-order bride by means of a timber-cutting contest.
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Thunder in the Pines
1941
Cracked Nuts
0/0
A young man in a small town wins $5000 in a radio contest. He goes to New York City to propose to his girlfriend, but gets mixed up with a crooked att...
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Cracked Nuts
1941
Love at First Fright
0/0
A family of hillbillies mistake a radio announcer for their long-lost relative.
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Love at First Fright
1945
Eadie Was a Lady
4/3
In this amiable Columbia B musical, society girl Ann Miller escapes her Back Bay family by performing in the chorus line in a burlesque house. But tro...
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Eadie Was a Lady
1941
Blonde Inspiration
5.4/6
A writer of pulp Westerns cranks out more words than his editor and publisher want to pay for.
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Blonde Inspiration
1942
Powder Town
3.7/3
Director Rowland V. Lee's wacky 1942 comedy, about an absent-minded scientist working on a secret formula at an explosives plant, stars Edmond O'Brien...
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Powder Town
1941
New Wine
0/0
The romantic story of Franz Schubert 's fight for recognition of his music. The 1941 Reinhold Schunzel biographical musical composer melodrama.
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New Wine
1938
The Storm
0/1
A passenger ship unexpectedly runs into a typhoon.
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The Storm
1944
Sweethearts of the U.S.A.
4/2
A WW-II defense plant worker gets knocked out and dreams about helping the war effort in various ways, including solving a crime.
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Sweethearts of the U.S.A.
1942
Fly-By-Night
6.4/5
Young intern Jeff Burton, impulsively offers a lift to an odd-looking gentlemen. It soon turns out that Jeff's passenger is an inventor has just escap...
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Fly-By-Night
1945
Penthouse Rhythm
0/0
Musical comedy directed by Edward F. Cline
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Penthouse Rhythm
1934
Crime Without Passion
5.8/20
Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry is going out with Katy Costello, but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown. When he wants to end the dalliance with...
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Crime Without Passion
1949
Oh, You Beautiful Doll
4.7/3
Period musical about a song plugger who vows to turn an opera composer's music into popular hits.
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Oh, You Beautiful Doll
1945
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
5.66/25
When two bumbling barbers act as agents for a talented but unknown singer, they stage a phony murder in order to get him a plum role.
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Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
1935
Moon Over Manhattan
0/0
A musical short about a young couple, an artist for an advertising firm and a hopeful model. They try a couple of schemes to get Sally a job with the...
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Moon Over Manhattan
1946
Nobody Lives Forever
6.167/21
A con artist falls for the rich widow he's trying to fleece.
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Nobody Lives Forever
1945
On Stage Everybody
0/0
Radio's miracle show is on the screen.
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On Stage Everybody
1939
Invisible Stripes
6.1/19
A gangster is unable to go straight after returning home from prison.
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Invisible Stripes
1942
Wedded Blitz
0/0
Errol is a character actor who wears various makeups, costumes, and disguises when he goes home. His neighbors mistakenly suspect his glamorous young...
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Wedded Blitz
1940
Blondes and Blunders
0/0
A beautiful blonde places a stolen diamond on an unsuspecting man. Later, she returns to retrieve it.
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Blondes and Blunders
1951
Journey Into Light
6/2
John Burrows, an ordained minister from a small village in the East, envisions himself with a larger congregation. He is mortified when his wife drunk...
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Journey Into Light
1935
Richard Himber and His Orchestra
3.5/2
Richard Himber and His Orchestra plays us a few songs.
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