Barbara La Marr

Biography

Barbara La Marr was born in Yakima, Washington, on July 28, 1896, as Reatha Watson. Her childhood was mostly uneventful, mainly because Yakima--today a medium-sized city with a population of over 50, 000-wasn't exactly a beehive of activity. Her parents eventually moved to the Los Angeles area, where she began to explore the show business lifestyle in whatever form she could. Barbara loved the L.A. way of living and was forced to grow up fast. She was still Reatha at the time, but her arrest for dancing in burlesque while still a teen caused her to change her name to Barbara La Marr to avoid being associated with her past. Her passion was dancing and writing, but the powers-that-be in the movie industry thought she was meant for other things--her dazzling beauty captured the imagination of all who came across her path. Moving to New York, she was ultimately lured into the film world, her first picture being Harriet and the Piper (1920). She was still going by her married name of Barbara Deely (already working to shed her fourth husband) and was being dubbed "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful." The next year she appeared in The Three Musketeers (1921) and Desperate Trails (1921). That same year, her role as Claudine Dupree in The Nut (1921) sent Barbara into super-stardom. Hordes of fans flocked to theaters to see this beautiful actress in movies such as Arabian Love (1922), Trifling Women (1922), Domestic Relations (1922) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) whose beauty kept them enthralled. In 1923, she kept up her frenzied filming pace with such pictures as Poor Men's Wives (1923), The Brass Bottle (1923) and Souls for Sale (1923). The public adored her, as evidenced by the volumes of fan mail she received, but Barbara was more interested in the late-night partying she was involved with. The combination of alcohol and drugs was, clearly, beginning to wear her down. She made four films in 1924 and three in 1925. Her last picture was The Girl from Montmartre (1926). On February 2, 1926, Barbara died of tuberculosis in Altadena, California. Her demise was, no doubt, brought about by her constant late-night partying. She had lived a lifetime and had made 30 films, but was only 29 when she died.