Barbara La Marr (July 28, 1896 - January 30, 1926) was an American film actress.

Born in Yakima, Washington, La Marr moved with her adoptive parents to California while in her early teens. She was known after her adoption as Rheatha Dale Watson. After spending her early years in a small town, she was impressed by the nightlife of the rapidly growing Los Angeles. While still in her teens she was arrested for dancing in a burlesque club. Changing her name to Barbara La Marr, she continued working on the fringes of showbusiness, but at that time her main ambition was to become a writer.

After marrying and moving with her husband to New York, New York, La Marr found employment writing screenplays and her association with movie makers led to her returning to Los Angeles and making her film debut as an actress in 1920. Over the next few years she acted frequently in films, and was widely publicised as "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World".

Her film career flourished, but she also embraced the Hollywood nightlife, remarking in an interview that she slept no more than two hours a night, as life was too short to waste on sleep. During this time she became addicted to heroin, and her addiction, combined with her busy social life and gruelling work commitments took their toll on her health. She died from tuberculosis and nephritis in Altadena, California and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The newspapers of the day referred to her as "The Girl Too Beautiful To Live", a slight variation on the title that had been closely associated with her.

Lamarr married for the first time at the age of seventeen, and during her short life was married five times. At the time of her death she was married to the actor Jack Dougherty . Some years after her death, it was revealed that she had mothered an illegitimate son, Marvin Carville La Marr, who was adopted after her death by the actress Zasu Pitts and her husband, film executive Tom Gallery . The child was renamed Don Gallery and grew up to become an actor and a sometime boyfriend of Elizabeth Taylor; he now lives in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Barbara La Marr has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1621 Vine Street.

Trivia

In the 1930s, Louis B. Mayer named the actress Hedy Lamarr after Barbara La Marr, who had been one of his favourite actresses.

External link

Barbara La Marr photo gallery