Brantingham, Barbara
Sunny and vivacious to a tee, lovely, well-coiffed Barbara Britton looked like she stepped out of magazine as she entered our homes daily as the 'Revlon Girl' on 50s and 60s TV. She captured that "perfect wife/perfect mother" image with perfect poise and grace. It all began for the radiant blue-eyed redhead in equally sunny Long Beach, California where she taught Sunday sch ...
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Sunny and vivacious to a tee, lovely, well-coiffed Barbara Britton looked like she stepped out of magazine as she entered our homes daily as the 'Revlon Girl' on 50s and 60s TV. She captured that "perfect wife/perfect mother" image with perfect poise and grace. It all began for the radiant blue-eyed redhead in equally sunny Long Beach, California where she taught Sunday school and attended Long Beach City College majoring in speech. Her interest in acting, however, took hold and she began to pursue the local stage. Her lucky 'Hollywood' story unfolds as a Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade representative who was caught on the front pages of the newspaper, scouted out and signed by Paramount movie agents. Barbara debuted in Secret of the Wasteland (1941), a Hopalong Cassidy western. She continued on with modest but showy parts in Louisiana Purchase (1941), So Proudly We Hail (1943), and Till We Meet Again (1944). Underused for most of her film career as a pretty, altruistic, genteel young thing in such durable films as The Great John L. (1945), The Virginian (1946), and Bandit Queen (1950), Barbara turned to the stage and TV in the 1950s. After co-starring with Richard Denning in "Mr. and Mrs. North," she became Revlon's lovely pitchwoman and remained on view for 12 years with the company. In between she appeared on the top dramatic shows of the day, co-starring in her final movie with The Spoilers (1955) opposite Jeff Chandler and Rory Calhoun. Various Broadway shows included "Getting Married," her debut in 1951, "Wake Up, Darling (1956), and "Thee and Me" (1965). More and more time was spent raising her family (her husband was a doctor and psychiatrist) and Barbara was only occasionally seen in the 1970s. Much of her work would be in regional or dinner theater productions, sometimes appearing with two of her four grownup children in such shows as "40 Carats" and "A Roomful of Roses." Sadly, her two younger children died while very young. Oldest daughter Christina Britton became an actress and operatic singer while son Ted appeared on episodic TV. One of Barbara's last roles was on the daytime soap "One Life to Live" in 1979, a year before she died of cancer.
She did commercials for "Revlon" live on the set of $64,000 Question (1955).
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Genres: Romance | Western
