Biography of Barbara Britton:
Barbara Britton, a radiant and well-coiffed actress, was born Barbara Maureen Brantingham on September 26, 1920, in Long Beach, California. She began her acting career on the local stage and was eventually signed by Paramount movie agents after being spotted as a Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade representative. Barbara adopted the stage name Britton, which was a cherished family name, as Paramount found Brantingham too long to fit on a marquee.
She made her film debut in 1941 with Secret of the Wastelands, a Hopalong Cassidy western, and continued to appear in bit parts before landing more substantial roles in films such as Louisiana Purchase, So Proudly We Hail!, and Till We Meet Again. Barbara eventually earned higher visibility as a lead and second femme lead, but was often typecast as a pretty, altruistic, and genteel young woman in male-oriented films.
In the 1950s, Barbara turned to television and the stage, making her TV debut on an episode of "Robert Montgomery Presents" in 1950 and her Broadway debut co-starring in the short-lived "Getting Married" the following year. She co-starred with Richard Denning on the TV program "Mr. & Mrs. North" for a couple of seasons before earning major attention as Revlon's lovely pitchwoman, a role she held for 12 years.
Barbara appeared in various Broadway shows, including "Wake Up, Darling," "How to Make a Man," and "Me and Thee," as well as regional productions and dinner theatre shows. She occasionally appeared with her two children in regional shows, and more and more time was devoted to raising her family as time passed.
Married to Eugene Czukor, a naturopathic physician and later a psychiatrist, Barbara had two children, Theodore (Ted or Theo) and Christina, who both used the surname Britton in their respective performance careers. Barbara's last role was as a regular on the daytime soap "One Life to Live" in 1979, but her time on the show was cut short when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She died in January 1980 at the age of 60.
