Marion Byron
Marion Byron (born Miriam Bilenkin; March 16, 1911, Dayton, Ohio – July 5, 1985, Santa Monica, California) was an American movie comedian. After following her sister into a short stage career as a singer/dancer, she was given her first movie role as Buster Keaton's leading lady in the film Steamboat Bill, Jr. in 1928. From there she was hired by Hal Roach to co-star in short subjects with Max Davidson, Edgar Kennedy, and Charley Chase, but most significantly with Anita Garvin, where tiny (4'11" in high heels) Marion was teamed with the 6' Anita for a brief three-film series as a "female Laurel & Hardy" in 1928–1929.
She left Roach before they made talkies, but she went on working, now in musical features, like the Vitaphone film Broadway Babies (1929) with Alice White, and the early Technicolor feature, Golden Dawn (1930).
Her parts slowly got smaller until they were unbilled walk-ons in films like Meet the Baron (1933), starring Jack Pearl and Hips Hips Hooray (1934) with Wheeler & Woolsey. Her final screen appearance was as a baby nurse to the Dionne Quintuplets in their film, Five of a Kind (1938).
Filmography (37 Appearances)
Swellhead
Gift of Gab
It Happened One Day
Susie's Affairs
Only Yesterday
Meet the Baron
College Humor
Breed of the Border
The Crime of the Century
The Curse of a Broken Heart
They Call It Sin
Trouble in Paradise
Love Me Tonight
The Hollywood Handicap
The Tenderfoot
The Heart of New York
Running Hollywood
Working Girls
Children of Dreams
Girls Demand Excitement
The Bad Man
The Matrimonial Bed
Golden Dawn
Song of the West
Playing Around
The Show of Shows
The Forward Pass
So Long Letty
Broadway Babies
The Unkissed Man
A Pair of Tights
His Captive Woman
Going Ga-Ga
Feed 'em and Weep
The Boy Friend
Plastered in Paris
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
