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Darvi was born Bayla Wegier to Chaym Wegier, a baker, and his wife, Chaya. She had three brothers, Robert, Jacques Wegier, Jean-Isidore, and a sister, Sura. Robert died in a concentration camp.

Jailed by the Nazis during World War II, she was released in 1943. She married a businessman, Alban Cavalcade, on October 7, 1950 and traveled with him to Monaco. She was discovered in Paris by the wife of mogul Darryl Zanuck. In 1952, she divorced Cavalcade, and moved into the Zanuck home. In August 1953, she signed a contract with Zanuck, who changed her name to Bella Darvi, Darvi a combination of the first names of Zanuck and his wife, Virginia. Eventually, she became Zanuck's mistress, although she reportedly dated other men including Robert Stack and Brad Dexter.

She was Richard Widmark's love interest in Sam Fuller's 1954 film Hell and High Water, but is probably best known for the role of Nefer, the seductive Babylonian courtesan, in The Egyptian.

Zanuck left his wife for Darvi, but left her when he discovered that she was either a lesbian or bisexual. (She later very publicly dated women, as well as men.) Despite liaisons with extremely wealthy men, she was unable to establish a permanent relationship or to curb her gambling habit. Zanuck was still paying off her debts as late as 1970. On November 13, 1960, Darvi married Claude Rouas, a restaurant waiter, in Las Vegas; the marriage was annulled less than a year later.

Death

Darvi committed suicide, after several failed attempts, in Monte Carlo by gas. Her body remained undiscovered for more than a week.

Barbara Britton

in Actresses

Posted September 25, 201014 yr

Barbara Britton (September 26, 1919 – January 17, 1980) was an American film and television actress.

She was the first actress to play Laura Petrie on television on the pilot program, Head of the Family, which was retooled and became The Dick Van Dyke Show with the role taken over by Mary Tyler Moore. The California native signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures in 1941. Her first two films were that same year, first in the William Boyd western Secret of the Wasteland, followed by Louisiana Purchase starring Bob Hope. Her first big film appearance was a small role in the 1942 John Wayne film Reap the Wild Wind.

During the 1940s she starred in three films that, today, are her most recognizable film roles, two of which placed her starring opposite Randolph Scott. The first was with Scott in the 1945 film Captain Kidd, followed by The Virginian in 1946, opposite Joel McCrea. The third was in the 1947 Randolph Scott film Gunfighters. She would team with Randolph Scott again in the 1948 western Albuquerque, and that same year she starred opposite Gene Autry in Loaded Pistols. In total she starred or appeared in twenty-six films during that decade.

Reportedly, due to lasting trauma which she suffered making the 1943 war picture So Proudly We Hail!, she sought the help of physician and psychoanalyst, Dr. Eugene J. Czukor, in 1944. The memorable film was about a group of nurses returning from the war in the Philippines recall their experiences in combat and in love. Britton and Dr. Czukor (22 years her senior) married soon after, lasting until Britton's death 35 years later.

Britton starred in the 1950s television show Mr. and Mrs. North, a Thin Man-like mystery show with Richard Denning and Francis De Sales. She was probably best known for being the spokesperson for Revlon products in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in ads and commercials including live spots on The $64,000 Question.

One of Barbara's last roles was on the daytime TV-soap One Life to Live in 1979, a year before she died of gastric cancer in New York City, on January 17, 1980, aged 60.

For many years Barbara and her husband lived in a rambling red shingled house in the Fairfield County town of Bethel, Connecticut before moving to the now antique-gallery enclave of Woodbury, Connecticut. Oldest daughter Christina Britton became an actress and operatic singer while son Ted appeared on episodic TV. Her widower, Dr. Eugene Czukor, died in 1989, at age 92.

Mari Blanchard (April 13, 1927 – May 10, 1970) was an American actress, known for her roles as a B movie femme fatale in American films of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Career

In the late 1940s, Blanchard was a successful print model and film extra. Blanchard began appearing in films after she was seen by a producer in an advertisement for bubble bath in 1950.

Blanchard soon found success as an actress. From 1951 to 1952, she took small roles in a number of films at MGM, RKO, and Paramount, until she was signed by Universal-International in 1952. Her first film at the studio was Back at the Front (1952). One of her most memorable roles was the Venusian queen, Allura, in the 1953 comedy Abbott and Costello Go to Mars. She starred in Destry (1954), a western with Audie Murphy. In 1955, she starred in "Escape From Fear", an episode of the television series Climax!.

In the 1960–1961 television season, Blanchard starred as Kathy O'Hara in the NBC Western series Klondike with Ralph Taeger, James Coburn, and Joi Lansing.

Death

After abandoning her film career upon the release of her final film, McLintock! in 1963, Blanchard retired, acting in just a few TV programs afterward. She was diagnosed with cancer in the 1960s. Following a long struggle she died at the age of 43.