Edith Barrett

Edith Barrett first stepped onto a Broadway stage at 16 as a member of Walter Hampden's Cyrano de Bergerac company. During the 1930s, Edith performed with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre troupe. While appearing in the Mercury's 1937 production of The Shoemaker's Holiday, she married leading man Vincent Price, a union that lasted until 1948. Edith's biggest Broadway success was as star of the now-obscure production Mrs. Moonlight. She made her first film in 1941, playing the homicidal, half-witted half-sister of Ida Lupino in Ladies in Retirement. Edith's most famous movie role was the unfortunate Mrs. Holland in I Walked With a Zombie (1943), producer Val Lewton's voodoo version of Jane Eyre; ironically, she was seen as Mrs Fairfax in 20th Century-Fox's 1943 adaptation of the real Jane Eyre. Edith Barrett retired from films after essaying a minor role in 1956's The Swan.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide