Barbara Mullen

infobox actress

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birthdate=birth date|1914|6|9
birthplace=Boston, Massachusetts
deathdate=death date and age|1979|4|9|1914|6|9
deathplace=London, England
occupation=Television actress
parents=Pat Mullen
spouse=John Taylor

Barbara Mullen (9 June 1914, Boston, Massachusetts – 9 March 1979, London, England [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0611984/bio Biographical detail] : IMDB.com website. Retrieved on 18 March 2008.] ) was an American actress well known in the UK for playing the part of Janet the housekeeper in "Dr Finlay's Casebook". [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159867/ Janet the housekeeper] , "Dr. Finlay's Casebook": IMDB.com website. Retrieved on 18 March 2008.] Although the role of Janet brought her fame in later years, she had already made her mark in the theatre.

Mullen's parents, Pat and Bridget, were from a fishing family on the Isle of Arran, but the family had emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, where Mullen was consequently born. She made her stage debut at the age of three as a dancer. When her father returned to Aran, becoming famous as the 'Man of Aran', in the classic documentary film by Robert Flaherty, her mother stayed in America to bring up the ten children. Mullen sang and danced in various theatres all over America, before crossing the Atlantic in 1934 and training at the Webber Douglas Academy.

At the very early age of 24, she wrote her autobiography, 'Life is my Adventure' and a year later made her London debut. She became an overnight star, acting the title role in the London West End production of "Jeannie", a comedy about a Scottish girl taking a European holiday after coming into money.

She later succeeded Celia Johnson as Mrs De Winter in the Daphne Du Maurier classic "Rebecca" and played Maggie in a revival of "What Every Woman Knows" by J M Barrie and as the aged sleuth "Miss Marple" in "The Murder at the Vicarage" by Agatha Christie.

Mullen repeated the role of 'Jeannie' on television and in the 1941 British film, which was her cinema debut, alongside Michael Redgrave, and she followed this with appearances in 20 further films, including "A Place of One's Own", "Corridor of Mirrors" and "Innocent Sinners". She appeared on television in America and Britain, in programmes such as "Juno and the Paycock" and "The Danny Thomas Show" before being offered the role in "Dr Finlay's Casebook", which began on the BBC in 1962. Her character, Janet, was the ever efficient housekeeper to Doctors Finlay and Cameron at Arden House, in the fictional Scottish village of Tannochbrae. When the series finished on television nine years later, it transferred to radio, running until 1978.

She also played a notable role in the 1942 film version of Robert Ardrey's "Thunder Rock", as Ellen Kirby, the feminist who is jailed for her "subversive" ideas. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035440/ Ellen Kirby] in "Thunder Rock" (1942): IMDB.com website. Retrieved on 18 March 2008.] She was the daughter of Pat Mullen, star of Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran. [ [http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/IRL-ARAN-ISLANDS/2003-12/1070369123 Daughter of Pat Mullen] : RootsWeb website. Retrieved on 18 March 2008.] She was married to the film's cameraman, documentary film-maker John Taylor. and they had two daughters - Briged and Susannah.

Barbara Mullen died of a heart attack in London, England on 9 March 1979.

References

*"Man of Aran", Pat Mullen, E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1935.

External links

*imdb|0611984