Barbara Bates

In California, she met Cecil Coan, a married United Artists publicist more than two decades her senior. He left his wife and married Barbara in March 1945, then guided her career. She started with obscure starlet bits and pin-up work, a job she didn't enjoy, but Warner Bros. signed her in 1947 and promoted her as the girl next door. She rose to lead and second lead roles opposite stars such as Bette Davis in June Bride (1948), Danny Kaye in The Inspector General (1949), Rory Calhoun in I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (1951), and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in The Caddy (1953). Her work in these films was routine, and her personal life soon unraveled. Extreme mood shifts, insecurity, ill health, and chronic depression led to her being taken off important assignments. By age 30, her early promise was no longer considered, and Coan, who made all her decisions, tried to salvage her career in England.

The Rank Organisation picked her up, and she co-starred with John Mills and Michael Craig in dramatic suspense films, but those films were mediocre. She again showed instability, was dropped from two films, and the Rank Organisation let her go. Back in Hollywood, her old friend Rory Calhoun cast her in Apache Territory (1958), but emotionally she could not withstand the pressures. She abandoned her career, except for an appearance in The Loaded Tourist (1962) with Roger Moore. Nothing was heard of her until her death in March 1969. It was learned she had returned to Denver and worked as a secretary, dental assistant, and hospital aide. Coan died of cancer in January 1967; Barbara fell apart. She remarried in December 1968 to childhood friend and sportscaster William Reed, but remained despondent. She committed suicide just four months later, found dead in her car of carbon monoxide poisoning in her mother's garage.

Ironically, the role she is most identified with is one of her smallest: Phoebe in the final scene of All About Eve (1950). As a devious schoolgirl and wannabe actress, she poses before a three-way mirror clutching Eve Harrington's just-received acting award. That brief moment, captured in the film's last shot, is what she is best remembered for.