Biography for
Binnie Barnes More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

25 March 1903, Finsbury, London, England, UK

Date of Death

27 July 1998, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (natural causes)

Birth Name

Gittel Enoyce Barnes (later called Gertrude Maude Barnes)

Height

5' 5" (1.65 m)

Mini Biography

British-born actress who appeared in both British and American films, but who found her greatest success in Hollywood second leads. After a variety of jobs, including nurse, chorus girl and milkmaid, Barnes entered vaudeville. She appeared in more than a score of short comedies with comedian Stanley Lupino before making her feature bow in 1931. Two years later she achieved prominence as one of the half-dozen wives of the King in The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933). The following year she moved to Hollywood and began a career as the smart-aleck pal of the lead or as the angry "other woman." Barnes also played numerous leading roles, but spent most of the 1930s and 40s in strong supporting parts. In 1940 she married football star (and later producer) M.J. Frankovich and after the war, they moved to Italy and appeared in several films there and elsewhere in Europe. She retired from films in 1954, but returned for a few roles in the late 60s and early 70s. She worked busily with numerous charities until her death in 1998.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Mini Biography

Her early work, beginning at age 15, included milkmaid, nurse, chorus girl, dance hostess and a vaudeville rope-twirling act in which she was known as "Texas Binnie Barnes." Her acting debut, with Charles Laughton, was in 1929 in Silver Tassie; her film debut was the English movie Night in Montmartre (1931). She did 26 comedy shorts with Stanley Lupino, which led to her playing Catherine Howard in Laughton's The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933) and a year later a part in Douglas Fairbanks' The Private Life of Don Juan (1934). In 1934, Carl Laemmle Jr. brought her to Hollywood where she played in more than 75 movies including Diamond Jim (1935) with Edward Arnold, The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) with Gary Cooper, and The Three Musketeers (1939) with Don Ameche. In 1940, she married UCLA football star (and later Columbia Studios producer) M.J. Frankovich. They moved to Italy after World War II where she made more films. She returned to Hollywood in the 1960s, playing in TV series and as Sister Celestine in the two Rosalind Russell "Angels" movies. Her last film was 40 Carats (1973) starring Liv Ullmann and Gene Kelly. Her husband died in 1992; she died six years later, aged 95, at her home in Beverly Hills. She was survived by two sons and a daughter.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Spouse

M.J. Frankovich	(28 September 1940 - 1 January 1992) (his death) 3 children
Samuel Joseph	(3 January 1931 - 15 October 1936) (divorced)

Trivia

Son Peter Frankovich (b. 1946)

Before her screen debut in 1929, she worked as a nurse, chorus girl, dance hostess, and vaudeville comedian.

Made 26 comedy shorts with Stanley Lupino

Mother of Mike Frankovich Jr. (b. 1942), Peter Frankovich (b. 1946) and 'Michelle Frankovich De Motte' (b. 1944).

Aunt of Rayford Barnes

She was one of four children.

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 29-30. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

She and her husband are buried alongside Joe E. Brown in his grave site in Forest Lawn in Glendale, California.

Shares a large monument and grave site with Joe E. Brown at Forest Lawn in Glendale.

Personal Quotes

I'm no Sarah Bernhardt. One picture is just like another to me as long as I don't have to be a sweet woman.