{
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  "@id": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/95622/deanna-durbin",
  "name": "Deanna Durbin",
  "url": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/95622/deanna-durbin",
  "knownForDepartment": "Acting",
  "description": "Edna Mae Durbin (December 4, 1921 – April 17, 2013), known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer, who moved to the USA with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias. In 1946, Durbin was the second-highest-paid woman in the United States, just behind Bette Davis; her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years.\n\nDurbin was a child actress who made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios. She achieved success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), and It Started with Eve (1941). Her work was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy, and led to Durbin being awarded the Academy Juvenile Award in 1938.\n\nAs she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her and attempted to move into sophisticated non-musical roles with film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945). These films, produced by frequent collaborator and second husband Felix Jackson, were not as successful; she continued in musical roles until her retirement. Upon her retirement and divorce from Jackson in 1949, Durbin married producer-director Charles Henri David and moved to a farmhouse near Paris. She withdrew from public life, granting only one interview on her career in 1983.",
  "birthDate": "1921-12-04",
  "deathDate": "2013-04-20",
  "birthPlace": "Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada",
  "alternateName": [
    "Edna Mae Durbin"
  ],
  "image": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/ue8P6Sn8YFDJ7z1OyntxCJn3qHN.jpg",
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  "lastVerified": "4 May 2026",
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      "title": "Los Angeles Plays Itself",
      "year": "2004",
      "role": "as Penny in Three Smart Girls (archive footage)",
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      "title": "It Started with Eve",
      "year": "1941",
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      "title": "That's Entertainment!",
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      "title": "First Love",
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      "title": "Spring Parade",
      "year": "1940",
      "role": "as Ilonka Tolnay",
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      "title": "Cavalcade of the Academy Awards",
      "year": "1940",
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      "title": "Christmas Holiday",
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      "title": "The Amazing Mrs. Holliday",
      "year": "1943",
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      "title": "Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1930s: Dancing Away the Great Depression",
      "year": "2009",
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      "title": "Three Smart Girls",
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      "role": "as Penny Craig",
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      "title": "His Butler's Sister",
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      "title": "Can't Help Singing",
      "year": "1944",
      "role": "as Caroline Frost",
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      "title": "Lady on a Train",
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      "role": "as Nikki Collins / Margo Martin",
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      "title": "Three Smart Girls Grow Up",
      "year": "1939",
      "role": "as Penny Craig",
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      "title": "Hollywood’s Children",
      "year": "1982",
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      "title": "Show-Business at War",
      "year": "1943",
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      "title": "Nice Girl?",
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      "role": "as Jane 'Pinky' Dana",
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      "title": "That Certain Age",
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      "role": "as Alice Fullerton",
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      "title": "Because of Him",
      "year": "1946",
      "role": "as Kim Walker",
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      "title": "One Hundred Men and a Girl",
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      "role": "as Patricia Cardwell",
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      "title": "It's a Date",
      "year": "1940",
      "role": "as Pamela Drake",
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      "title": "Hers to Hold",
      "year": "1943",
      "role": "as Penelope “Penny” Craig",
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      "title": "Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story",
      "year": "2002",
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      "title": "Something in the Wind",
      "year": "1947",
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}