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Jean Laverty

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Jean Laverty
Laverty (center) with Sally O'Neil and Eddie Gribbon in Bachelor's Paradise
Born
Gladys Louise Laverty

3 April 1904
Blue Lake, California, USA
Died28 September 1973 (aged 69)
Pismo Beach, California, USA
OccupationActress
SpouseWilliam V. Muir

Jean Laverty (born Gladys Laverty, and also known as Jean Bary) was an American actress active in Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s.[1][2]

Biography

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Early life

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Jean was born in Blue Lake, California, to Henry Laverty and Helen Douarin. While growing up in the small village in Humboldt County, she found herself drawn to the theater. She acted in her high school's plays and was said to have caused an argument between students and faculty by posing for glamorous flapper-style photographs in the school's student newspaper.[3][4] When she was 18, she was persuaded by a visiting woman stage director to run away from home and pursue a career as an actress.[5]

Hollywood career

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She eventually found work as a model and broke out as an actress on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit.[5] When the act arrived in Los Angeles, Jean decided to stay and try her hand in the movies. She spent her early years toiling in bit parts in comedies at Fox; then, in 1929, in a bid to amp up her career, she started going by Jean Bary, reportedly guided by a suggestion by a numerologist.[6] Soon after the name change, she was cast in a big role in Raoul Walsh's 1929 film The Cock-Eyed World.[5][7] Her last known role was in 1936's After the Thin Man.[8]

Personal life

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In 1938, she filed a lawsuit against film editor William Hamilton, charging that he had promised to marry her in December 1936 and then changed his mind nearly two years later.[9] She eventually married William V. Muir.[10]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ "First National Signs Leads". The Los Angeles Times. 19 July 1930. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  2. ^ "Just Modest Pretty Lass". The Huntsville Times. 26 March 1930. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  3. ^ "Girl's Photograph Opens Row in High School". The San Francisco Examiner. 23 June 1922. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  4. ^ "Flapper-Foto of Girl Causes Clash in Eureka School". Santa Ana Register. 11 July 1922. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  5. ^ a b c Coons, Robbin (8 August 1929). "Hollywood Sights and Sounds". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  6. ^ "Corinne Griffith Gathering Lilies". The Los Angeles Times. 7 August 1929. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  7. ^ "Star Gazing Along Movie Lane". The Pasadena Post. 18 July 1929. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  8. ^ Solomon, Aubrey (10 January 2014). The Fox Film Corporation, 1915–1935: A History and Filmography. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-8610-6.
  9. ^ "Chatter from Film Capitol". The Bakersfield Californian. 25 February 1938. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  10. ^ Marshall, Wendy L. (2005). William Beaudine: From Silents to Television. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5218-1.
  11. ^ Kreuger, Miles (1926). The Movie musical from Vitaphone to 42nd Street, as reported in a great fan magazine. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-23154-9.