Binnie Barnes

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BIRTHDAY

March 25, 1903

Islington, Greater London, England

DIED

July 27, 1998

RECENT CREDITS

Fire over Africa (FILM) Oct. 1, 1954

La Strada Buia (FILM) May. 8, 1950

The Pirates of Capri (FILM) Sep. 14, 1949

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BIOGRAPHY

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British actress Binnie Barnes took several performing and nonperforming jobs, not the least of which was as a milkmaid, before making her screen bow in a 1929 sound short. She was leading lady to British comic Stanley Lupino in a long series of two-reelers (she later appeared in Lupino's starring feature Love Lies [1931], directed by the star's brother, Lupino Lane). Signed by Alexander Korda in 1931, Barnes worked as a nominal leading lady in budget features for a staggering 35 pounds per week (approximately 180 dollars). Her first important role was as Catherine Howard in Korda's Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), which didn't bring her any more money but enabled her to receive better roles. After acting in the London stage production of Cavalcade, Barnes was brought to Hollywood for the film version, but she didn't like America and headed right back to England, where after some legal unpleasantries over breaking her contract she costarred with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in Korda's The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) (Korda's title department must have been in a rut). Contractually obligated to return to the US, she made her first Hollywood film, There's Always Tomorrow, in 1934. Toning down her English accent, the actress made her mark in secondary "wiseacre" roles, usually as the heroine's worldly best friend. She would later claim to have taken everything offered her because she liked to eat; that would explain her casting as Milady DeWinter in the Ritz Brothers' version of The Three Musketeers (1939) (in truth, it was one of her favorite roles, even though the Ritzes turned her upside down and shook her at one point in the film). In the early 1950s, Barnes tried her hand at producing films. The results were several middling European productions, including Decameron Nights (1953) - in which, to cut down costs, she played eight roles! She retired in 1955 to devote her time to her marriage to Columbia production chief Mike Frankovich. Barnes re-entered films only at the insistence of Frankovitch, who cast her in The Trouble With Angels (1968), Where Angels Go - Trouble Follows (1968) and Forty Carats (1972).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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