Barbara Weeks (film actress)

Barbara Weeks (film actress)
Barbara Weeks (born Susan Kingsley; July 4, 1913 – June 24, 2003) was an American film actress who performed primarily in Hollywood productions of the 1930s.
Early years
Weeks was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, and attended Melrose High School. Her mother was an actress, and "from the time Barbara was 3 years old her ambition was to be an actress, too." She entered acting through her participation in the Ziegfeld Follies, when she was cast in Whoopee. "I was scared to death," Weeks said of meeting Florenz Ziegfeld. "His office was an oblong room and you had to walk and walk to get to his desk. He was seated behind his desk, where on top were an assortment of toy elephants. I'll never forget that meeting." After the show closed, Weeks and other cast members, including star Eddie Cantor and Ethel Shutta, were brought to Hollywood to make the film version. Weeks felt it did not translate well, in spite of its smash hit success. "The audience has a lot to do with it. When you are on the stage, every audience is different. Filming is very tiresome and boring, and it doesn't give you the enthusiasm you get from the stage. That was evident in Whoopee! the film."
Film
In 1931, Weeks was named as one of 14 girls selected as a "WAMPAS Baby Star", which launched her into a brief but successful acting career, mostly in cliffhanger serials and B-movie films and B-Westerns. She claimed placement in westerns was punishment by Columbia head Harry Cohn for refusing his advances. "Cohn, however, never realized how much I liked being in them," she said. "He considered westerns punishment, but naturally I never mentioned it to him. I just enjoyed myself." He loaned her out to low budget studios to humiliate her as well, but it backfired. One of the films she was most proud of was Woman Unafraid, made by Goldsmith.
On August 23, 1938, Weeks appeared in a television experiment at NBC, an adaptation of Edwin Burke's play Good Medicine, co-starring Pat Lawrence and Lily Cahill. NBC telecasts were officially secret at the time, with audiences limited to 500–1000 viewers on company-owned sets.
Later years
Following Parker's death, Weeks moved to New York City and began working as a model.
Weeks had "a brief marriage to the actor Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams."
Partial filmography
Whoopee! (1930) - Goldwyn Girl (uncredited)
Man to Man (1930) - Alice (uncredited)
Illicit (1931) - Girl at the Bridal Shower (uncredited)
50 Million Frenchmen (1931) - Dowager's Daughter (uncredited)
Party Husband (1931) - Sally (uncredited)
Men of the Sky (1931) - (uncredited)
Palmy Days (1931) - Joan Clark
Two Fisted Justice (1931) - Nancy Cameron
Men in Her Life (1931) - Miss Mulholland
The Guilty Generation (1931) - Party Girl (uncredited)
Discarded Lovers (1932) - Valerie Christine
Stepping Sisters (1932) - Norma Ramsey
Cheaters at Play (1932) - Fenno Crozier
The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932) - Beautician (uncredited)
Devil's Lottery (1932) - Joan Mather
Hell's Headquarters (1932) - Diane Cameron
By Whose Hand? (1932) - Alice
The Night Mayor (1932) - Nutsy
White Eagle (1932) - Janet Rand
Deception (1932) - Joan Allen
Forbidden Trail (1932) - Mary Middleton
Sundown Rider (1932) - Molly McCall
Olsen's Big Moment (1933) - Jane Van Allen
State Trooper (1933) - Estelle
Soldiers of the Storm (1933) - Spanish waitress
Rusty Rides Alone (1933) - Mollie Martin
My Weakness (1933) - Lois Crowley
The Quitter (1934) - Diana Winthrop
The Crosby Case (1934) - Nora
School for Girls (1934) - Nell Davis
Woman Unafraid (1934) - Mary Sloan
Now I'll Tell (1934) - Wynne
She Was a Lady (1934) - Moira
When Strangers Meet (1934) - Elaine
Pick a Star (1937) - Hostess (uncredited)
Two-Fisted Sheriff (1937) - Molly Herrick
One Man Justice (1937) - Mary Crockett
The Old Wyoming Trail (1937) - Elsie Halliday
Dramatic School (1938) - Student (uncredited)
Paris Honeymoon (1939) - Julieska (uncredited)
Dad Rudd, MP (1940) - Sybil Vane
The Violent Years (1956) - Jane Parkins
Gun Girls (1957) - Teddy's Mother (final film role)
References
External links
B-Western Heroines, Barbara Weeks
People from Somerville, Massachusetts
Actresses from Massachusetts
American film actresses
1913 births
2003 deaths
WAMPAS Baby Stars
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American women