Biography
Edna Mae Durbin, 4 December 1921, Winnipeg, Canada. A refreshingly natural and spirited actress and singer, with a clear, thrilling soprano voice, who was one of the top box-office stars in film musicals of the late 30s and 40s. The Durbin family moved to Los Angeles, California when Deanna was a baby, and she received voice training from the age of eight. After being spotted by an MGM agent singing at a recital, she was set to portray the opera singer Eva Schumann-Heink as a child in a picture based on the diva’s life, but that fell through and instead she co-starred with Judy Garland in the musical short film Every Sunday (1936). When MGM boss Louis B. Mayer decided to drop Durbin and keep Garland, she was immediately snapped up for Universal by producer Joe Pasternak. The public’s response to her performance in Three Smart Girls (1936) was rapturous, and the film’s receipts of $2 million saved the studio from bankruptcy. Just before it was...
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