Wendy Barrie (18 April, 1912 – 2 February, 1978) was a British actress who worked in British and Hollywood films.
Her birth name was Marguerite Wendy Jenkins and she was born in Hong Kong to British parents. Her father was a successful lawyer who could afford to educate her at quality schools in England and Switzerland.
While still in her teens, she began pursuing a career as an actress. Adopting the stage name Wendy Barrie, she began her acting life in English theatre then in 1932 made her screen debut in the film "Threads" that was based on a play. She went on to make a number of motion pictures for London Films under the Korda brothers, Alexander and Zoltan, the best-known of which is 1933's The Private Life of Henry VIII which starred Charles Laughton and Robert Donat with Merle Oberon as Anne Boleyn, Elsa Lanchester as Anne of Cleves and Barrie as Jane Seymour.
Contracted by Hollywood's Fox Film Corporation for a 1934 film directed by Scott Darling that was made in Britain, the following year Wendy Barrie moved to the United States and made her first Hollywood film for Fox opposite Spencer Tracy in the romantic comedy, It's a Small World. Loaned to MGM, Barrie starred opposite James Stewart in the 1936 film, Speed. After several more films, in 1939 she starred with Richard Greene and Basil Rathbone in the 20th Century Fox version of The Hound of the Baskervilles and for RKO with Lucille Ball in dramatic roles in Five Came Back directed by John Farrow. During the early 1940s, Wendy Barrie made several of "The Saint" and "The Falcon" mystery films with George Sanders. She made her final motion picture in 1943.
With the dawn of television, near the end of the decade, Barrie turned to roles in that medium. During 1948 and 1949 she hosted a DuMont Television Network comedy for children featuring a cowboy puppet called "The Adventures of Oky Doky." However, she is best remembered by national audiences as host of one of the first-ever television talk shows. The Wendy Barrie Show debuted in November of 1948 on ABC, then ran on DuMont Television and NBC, ending its run in September of 1950. She continued to appear on network television on panel shows and as guest star in the early 1950s and as a spokesperson for commercial products, including a stint as the original Revlon salewoman on the "$64,000 Question" during its first, hugely successful, months on air. Her pitching of Living Lipstick saw that product's being sold out across the country. Barrie continued on local tv in New York and hosted a widely syndicated radio interview show into the mid-1960s.
After more than fifteen films in Britain and more than thirty in Hollywood, Wendy Barrie's contribution to the industry was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1700 Vine Street.
She died in Englewood, New Jersey in 1978, aged 65, following a stroke that had left her debilitated for several years. She was buried in the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
The Wendy Barrie Show was an American television series which aired from 1948 to 1950. It is notable as one of the first examples of a televised talk show, and aired (separately) on ABC, DuMont, and NBC. It was fairly common, in those days, for shows to switch networks.
The series starred Wendy Barrie, a notable film and television actress with over forty films to her credit. The series began as a sketch comedy, but eventually changed formats and became a talk show. The final episode aired on September 27, 1950.
