01.30
Who died on this date:
On January 30, 1926, silent film actress Barbara La Marr died. She was born Reatha Dale Watson on July 28, 1896 in Yakima, Washington. She was known as “The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful.” La Marr made the successful leap from writer to actress in Douglas Fairbanks, The Nut (1921). She appeared in over 30 films, wrote seven successful screenplays for United Artists and Fox Studios. La Marr’s notable film credits include The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), and Trifling Women (1922). Although her film career flourished, she also embraced the fast-paced Hollywood nightlife, remarking in an interview that she slept no more than two hours a night.
La Marr was married five times. At the time of her death she was married to actor Jack Dougherty. Some years after her death, it was revealed that she had mothered a son by a man whose name has never been released. The child, Marvin Carville La Marr, was adopted by the actress Zasu Pitts. The child was renamed Don Gallery and grew up to become an actor and a sometime boyfriend of Elizabeth Taylor. On January 30, 1926, La Marr died of tuberculosis and nephritis in Altadena, California at the age of 29. She is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
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