Mary Forbes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Forbes (1 January 1883 – 22 July 1974), born Ethel Louise Young, was a British-American film actress, based in the United States in her latter years, where she died. She appeared in more than 130 films between 1919 and 1958.
Forbes was born in Hornsey, England.
She made her first public appearance on the concert platform giving recitals. Her acting debut was in 1908 on the London stage at Aldwych Theatre. Her American stage debut came in Romance at Maxine Elliott's Theatre in 1913.
She took over management of the Ambassadors Theatre in 1913 and had several years experience on stage in Britain and America before her appearances in Hollywood films. Two of her three children by her first marriage in the first quarter of 1904 to Ernest J. Taylor, Ralph and Dorothy Brenda, known as Brenda, were also actors. The middle child of the three, Phyllis Mary Taylor, was not in the acting business. Her second husband was British actor Charles Quartermaine, who married in 1925; the union ended in divorce. She married her third husband, Wesley Wall, an American businessman, in 1935; the couple remained married until her death in 1974.
She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1943, with one of her character references being Lucile Webster Gleason, actress and wife of actor James Gleason.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 0.4261 |
| Birthday | 1882-12-30 |
| Place of Birth | Hornsey, Middlesex [now in Haringey, London], England, UK |
| Also Known As | Ethel Louise Young, |
1936
Theodora Goes Wild
6.57/50
The small-town prudes of Lynnfield are up in arms over 'The Sinner,' a sexy best-seller. They little suspect that author 'Caroline Adams' is really Th...
Watch Now
Theodora Goes Wild
1946
Terror by Night
6.557/150
Holmes and Watson board a passenger train bound from London to Edinburgh, to guard the Star of Rhodesia, an enormous diamond worth a fortune belonging...
Watch Now
Terror by Night
1935
Laddie
10/1
A romance between two young lovers is complicated by their prohibitive parents. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
Watch Now
Laddie
1942
Almost Married
7/2
To avoid a costly breach of contract suit, a rich young man marries a nightclub singer.
Watch Now
Almost Married
1932
A Farewell to Arms
6.153/157
A tale of the World War I love affair, begun in Italy, between American ambulance driver Lt. Frederic Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley. Event...
Watch Now
A Farewell to Arms
1938
You Can't Take It with You
7.499/449
Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish m...
Watch Now
You Can't Take It with You
1939
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
6.952/21
Fields plays "Larsen E. Whipsnade", the owner of a shady carnival that is constantly on the run from the law. Whipsnade is struggling to keep a step a...
Watch Now
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
1937
The Awful Truth
7.219/349
Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.
Watch Now
The Awful Truth
1933
Bombshell
6.5/57
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Watch Now
Bombshell
1935
Les Misérables
7.14/57
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both me...
Watch Now
Les Misérables
1935
Roberta
7.083/48
Football player John Kent tags along as Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians travel to an engagement in Paris, only to lose it immediately. John and...
Watch Now
Roberta
1934
She Was a Lady
8/1
Before his daughter can formally claim her rightful title, her father dies. Now her blue-blooded American suitor finds that his father refuses to allo...
Watch Now
She Was a Lady
1935
Captain Blood
7.216/264
Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.
Watch Now
Captain Blood
1939
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
6.929/163
Having once again avoided criminal conviction, Professor Moriarity develops a murderous plan to “finish off” his last major nemesis, Sherlock Holmes,...
Watch Now
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1934
British Agent
5.789/19
In the days leading up to the Russian Revolution, Stephen Locke, a minor British diplomat in St Petersburg, falls in love with a Russian spy.
Watch Now
British Agent
1944
Tender Comrade
5.676/17
Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situati...
Watch Now
Tender Comrade
1929
The Trespasser
6.857/14
A stenographer who works for a lawyer falls in love with and marries a wealthy young man. His family has the marraige annulled, after which she gives...
Watch Now
The Trespasser
1939
Outside These Walls
8.75/2
Walen plays Dan Sparling, a convicted embezzler who becomes editor of his prison newspaper. After serving out his sentence, he sets up an independent...
Watch Now
Outside These Walls
1929
Sunny Side Up
7.077/13
Molly and Bee, sweet young 'working girls,' live in a cheap room over a New York grocery store. Molly's idol, wealthy Jack Cromwell, lives in a Long I...
Watch Now
Sunny Side Up
1941
Nothing but the Truth
7.281/16
A stockbroker bets his new partners $10,000 that he can tell the truth, and only the truth, for twenty-four hours.
Watch Now
Nothing but the Truth
1935
Rendezvous
4.85/10
A decoding expert tangles with enemy spies.
Watch Now
Rendezvous
1952
Les Miserables
5.528/18
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both me...
Watch Now
Les Miserables
1941
Back Street
7.308/13
In turn-of-the-century Cincinnati, vibrant shop girl Ray Smith falls in love with banker Walter Saxel, who is engaged to a socially prominent woman. I...
Watch Now
Back Street
1929
The Thirteenth Chair
5.467/15
Although his murdered friend was by all accounts a scoundrel, Edward Wales is determined to trap his killer by staging a seance using a famous medium....
Watch Now
The Thirteenth Chair
1958
Houseboat
6.419/198
An Italian socialite on the run signs on as housekeeper for a widower with three children.
Watch Now
Houseboat
1931
The Man Who Came Back
4.333/6
A spoiled carefree rich kid gets into too much trouble for his father who sends him out on his own to prove himself capable of making a respectable ma...
Watch Now
The Man Who Came Back
1930
East Is West
5.333/3
Ming Toy is on the auction block in China. She is saved by Billy and taken to San Francisco by Lo Sang Kee. To save her from deportation she is sold t...
Watch Now
East Is West
1938
Always Goodbye
7.188/8
Following the death of her fiancé, Margot Weston is left pregnant and unmarried. Former doctor Jim Howard helps the desperate Margot. When her son is...
Watch Now
Always Goodbye
1934
You Can't Buy Everything
8/2
A scorned woman dreams of revenge on the man who betrayed her.
Watch Now
You Can't Buy Everything
1945
Lady on a Train
6.67/53
While watching from her train window, Nikki Collins witnesses a murder in a nearby building. When she alerts the police, they think she has read one t...
Watch Now
Lady on a Train
1931
Chances
7.429/7
Two brothers, Jack and Tom, are in love with the same woman, Molly. While the two brothers go off to war and Molly does her part in the effort, Tom be...
Watch Now
Chances
1939
The Sun Never Sets
5.5/3
The Randolph family have a tradition of working in the British colonial service. Clive comes home from a mission in the Gold Coast of Africa accompani...
Watch Now
The Sun Never Sets
1934
A Lost Lady
5.769/13
A bitter woman who thinks she'll never love again marries, only to fall for a brash young man.
Watch Now
A Lost Lady
1918
The Woman's Portion
0/0
British fictionalised propaganda drama on the need for women to accept separation from, and loss of, their husbands.
Watch Now
The Woman's Portion
1943
Two Tickets to London
7.5/2
Accused of helping an enemy submarine, a man escapes and joins a beautiful girl in trying to find the real traitors.
Watch Now
Two Tickets to London
1931
Working Girls
7.286/7
Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in N...
Watch Now
Working Girls
1938
Everybody Sing
5/8
Boisterous teen Judy Bellaire is expelled from her all-female boarding school for convincing her fellow school chorus members to sing a classical piec...
Watch Now
Everybody Sing
1938
Three Loves Has Nancy
4.188/8
A small-town country homebody goes to New York to find her missing fiancé and gets romantically involved with two sophisticated men.
Watch Now
Three Loves Has Nancy
1938
Outside of Paradise
7/1
Daniel Francis O'Toole, singing maestro in a New York restaurant, finds himself the unexpected heir to an estate in Ireland. He doesn't have money eno...
Watch Now
Outside of Paradise
1930
Strictly Unconventional
4.25/4
An adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's The Circle. A young woman married into an aristocratic English family finds life with her husband dull and deci...
Watch Now
Strictly Unconventional
1934
Blind Date
8/2
A young woman is torn between a wealthy suitor who wants her body and the honest young man who wants what's best for her.
Watch Now
Blind Date
1940
Blame It on Love
4.75/2
A short film put out by the Hotpoint Company to demonstrate their Electric Ranges.
Watch Now
Blame It on Love
1947
Ivy
6.63/27
When Ivy, an Edwardian belle, begins to like Miles, a wealthy gentleman, she is unsure of what to do with her husband, Jervis, or her lover, Dr. Roger...
Watch Now
Ivy
1939
Risky Business
6.5/2
Radio commentator Dan Clifford takes desperate chances to save the life of a young girl who has been kidnapped.
Watch Now
Risky Business
1934
Most Precious Thing in Life
5.833/5
An unwed mother watches as her illegitimate son is raised by others. Director Lambert Hillyer's 1934 drama stars Jean Arthur, Richard Cromwell, Donald...
Watch Now
Most Precious Thing in Life
1919
Women Who Win
9/1
A widow and her daughters join the Women's Service Training Bureau and become a nurse, a journalist and a landscape gardener.
Watch Now
Women Who Win
1940
Laddie
6.6/5
Handsome Laddie Stanton courts neighbor Pamela Pryor, meeting opposition from her stern military father, recently immigrated from England.
Watch Now
Laddie
1937
The Life of the Party
6.2/5
A singer finds another heir (Gene Raymond) to marry, to avoid the one (Joe Penner) her mother found.
Watch Now
The Life of the Party
1934
Two Heads on a Pillow
7/1
A lawyer handing a divorce case discovers the attorney for the opposition is his ex-wife.
Watch Now
Two Heads on a Pillow
1934
Happiness Ahead
6.6/5
Society heiress Joan Bradford rebels against her mother's choice of a future husband by masquerading as a working class girl and dating a window washe...
Watch Now
Happiness Ahead
1930
The Devil to Pay!
5.804/23
Spendthrift Willie Hale again returns penniless to the family home in London. His father is none too pleased, but Willie smooth-talks him into letting...
Watch Now
The Devil to Pay!
1939
Hollywood Cavalcade
6.214/7
Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for...
Watch Now
Hollywood Cavalcade
1940
South of Suez
4.6/5
Greedy diamond mine owner Eli Snedeker, resentful that his ex-foreman John Gamble stopped him from taking over kindly, but drunken, mine owner Roger S...
Watch Now
South of Suez
1936
The White Angel
7.167/6
In Victorian England, Florence Nightingale's heroic measures slowly change the attitude towards nurses when it was considered a disreputable professio...
Watch Now
The White Angel
1931
Born to Love
5.333/6
A pregnant American nurse living in London during WWI, believing her soldier-fiance has been killed in France, marries a wealthy aristocrat so her chi...
Watch Now
Born to Love
1939
Fast and Loose
5.875/8
The Sloanes tie murder to the theft of a Shakespeare manuscript.
Watch Now
Fast and Loose
1939
Three Smart Girls Grow Up
7.25/8
Three sisters who believe life is going to be easy, now that their parents are back together, until one sister falls in love with another's fiancé, an...
Watch Now
Three Smart Girls Grow Up
1939
These Glamour Girls
5.864/11
A drunken college student invites a dance hostess to the big college dance and then forgets he asked her. When she shows up at school, he tries to get...
Watch Now
These Glamour Girls
1934
We Live Again
6.833/6
Nekhludoff, a Russian nobleman serving on a jury, discovers that the young girl on trial, Katusha, is someone he once seduced and abandoned and that h...
Watch Now
We Live Again
1935
The Perfect Gentleman
6.333/3
A strait-laced country vicar is very embarrassed by his father's naughty exploits with a lively actress.
Watch Now
The Perfect Gentleman
1939
Ninotchka
7.513/429
A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
Watch Now
Ninotchka
1933
Cavalcade
5.523/128
A cavalcade of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 is seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners Jane and Robert Marryot. Amongst even...
Watch Now
Cavalcade
1947
The Judge Steps Out
7/3
A judge flees the pressures of professional and family life for a job as a short-order cook.
Watch Now
The Judge Steps Out
1937
Women of Glamour
5.667/3
A girl with a reputation falls for a wealthy playboy.
Watch Now
Women of Glamour
1937
Another Dawn
6.444/9
Colonel John Wister, on duty with the British army in the desert region of Dubik, returns to England on leave. There he falls in love with Julia Ashto...
Watch Now
Another Dawn
1934
Shock
7.333/3
Captain Bob Hayworth, his brother Lieutenant Gilroy Hayworth and Captain Derek Marbury are in a World-War 1 trench on the front-lines in France. Bob H...
Watch Now
Shock
1940
All This, and Heaven Too
7.241/58
When lovely and virtuous governess Henriette Deluzy comes to educate the children of the debonair Duc de Praslin, a royal subject to King Louis-Philip...
Watch Now
All This, and Heaven Too
1932
The Silent Witness
7/3
A London nobleman (Lionel Atwill) takes the blame and stands trial after his son strangles a lover (Greta Nissen).
Watch Now
The Silent Witness
1931
The Brat
5.423/13
A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon h...
Watch Now
The Brat
1947
It Had to Be You
7.75/4
A chronic runaway bride is haunted by her conscience, who becomes reality.
Watch Now
It Had to Be You
1940
Florian
4.5/2
Set against the backdrop of WWI Europe, a man and woman of different classes are brought together by their love of Lippizan horses.
Watch Now
Florian
1943
Dangerous Blondes
6.286/7
Mystery writer Barry Craig (Allyn Joslyn) and his wife Jane (Evelyn Keyes), prefer solving crimes rather than writing about them. They get a chance wh...
Watch Now
Dangerous Blondes
1942
Klondike Fury
5.056/9
In this Alaskan adventure, a surgeon becomes a pilot after he messes up an operation. Unfortunately, he crashes during a storm and finds himself cared...
Watch Now
Klondike Fury
1937
Wee Willie Winkie
6.647/34
In 1897, little Priscilla Williams, along with her widowed mother, goes to live with her army colonel paternal grandfather on the British outpost he c...
Watch Now
Wee Willie Winkie
1936
Wedding Present
6.2/15
Charlie Mason and Rusty Fleming are star reporters on a Chicago tabloid who are romantically involved as well. Although skilled in ferreting out great...
Watch Now
Wedding Present
1945
Earl Carroll Vanities
5.4/5
Broadway producer Earl Carroll was a Ziegfeld-like entrepreneur who staged lavish revues featuring attractive young ladies. Carroll's annual "Vanities...
Watch Now
Earl Carroll Vanities
1947
Cigarette Girl
7/1
A young man and woman base their love on lies that eventually manage to come true.
Watch Now
Cigarette Girl
1932
Vanity Fair
4.667/6
In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.
Watch Now
Vanity Fair
1939
I Stole a Million
8/2
A cabbie and petty thief dreams of the big heist that will end his thieving ways.
Watch Now
I Stole a Million
1942
Twin Beds
3.833/6
Mike Abbott just wants to spend a quiet evening at home with his wife, but her collection of zany friends make hash of his hopes.
Watch Now
Twin Beds
1942
The Great Impersonation
6.375/4
An Englishman kills a German look-alike and poses as a Nazi spy in London.
Watch Now
The Great Impersonation
1935
The Widow from Monte Carlo
5.75/4
In this romantic comedy, an aspiring socialite heads for a vacation in Monte Carlo where she befriends a wealthy widowed duchess and then begins black...
Watch Now
The Widow from Monte Carlo
1935
Stranded
6/6
A Traveler's Aid worker who delights in solving people's problems gets mixed up with gangsters.
Watch Now
Stranded
1945
The Picture of Dorian Gray
7.146/297
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
Watch Now
The Picture of Dorian Gray
1938
What Do You Think? (Number Three)
7.333/3
This short looks at the possibility that those who have passed on can communicate with us in ways we least expect.
Watch Now
What Do You Think? (Number Three)
1943
Sherlock Holmes in Washington
6.753/83
In World War II, a British secret agent carrying a vitally important document is kidnapped en route to Washington. The British government calls on She...
Watch Now
Sherlock Holmes in Washington
1930
So This Is London
7/2
Hiram Draper is an all-American self-made man with a profound distaste for everything British. Yet he must travel to London with his family. When Juni...
Watch Now
So This Is London
1943
Jane Eyre
6.92/150
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she mee...
Watch Now
Jane Eyre
1943
Mr. Lucky
6.957/46
A conman poses as a war relief fundraiser, but when he falls for a charity worker, his conscience begins to trouble him.
Watch Now
Mr. Lucky
1938
The Rage of Paris
5.85/20
Nicole has no job and is several weeks behind with her rent. Her solution to her problems is to try and snare a rich husband. Enlisting the help of he...
Watch Now
The Rage of Paris
1947
The Exile
6.333/9
In 17th-century England, Charles II, the rightful heir to the kingdom, is driven from his country by militants working for rogue leader Oliver Cromwel...
Watch Now
The Exile
1937
Stage Door
7.049/133
A spirited heiress wishing to break into theatre on her own merit arrives at a boardinghouse where aspiring young actresses and showgirls are brought...
Watch Now
Stage Door
1930
Abraham Lincoln
5.538/39
A biopic dramatizing Abraham Lincoln's life through a series of vignettes depicting its defining chapters: his romance with Ann Rutledge; his early ye...
Watch Now
Abraham Lincoln
1935
Anna Karenina
6.49/97
In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to...
Watch Now
Anna Karenina
1945
I'll Remember April
4.5/4
The daughter of a formerly wealthy man tries to get a job singing on a radio show, but gets involved in a feud and murder.
Watch Now
I'll Remember April
1940
Private Affairs
7/1
A girl decides to consult her natural father, whom she's never seen, for advice on her mixed-up love life.
Watch Now
Private Affairs
1929
Her Private Life
3/3
A English aristocrat causes a scandal when she divorces her husband and runs off with a young American.
Watch Now
Her Private Life
1948
You Gotta Stay Happy
6.765/17
Indecisive heiress Dee Dee Dillwood is pushed into marrying her sixth fiancée, but unable to face the wedding night, she flees into the adjacent hotel...
Watch Now
You Gotta Stay Happy
1942
This Above All
6.775/20
In 1940 England, aristocratic Prudence Cathaway alarms her snobbish parents by joining the WAF service branch. She soon meets and falls in love with t...
Watch Now
This Above All
1937
One Hundred Men and a Girl
6.426/27
The daughter of a struggling musician forms a symphony orchestra made up of his unemployed friends and through persistence, charm and a few misunderst...
Watch Now
One Hundred Men and a Girl
1935
Dizzy Dames
8/2
A musical comedy in a theatrical boarding house.
Watch Now
Dizzy Dames
1939
The Ice Follies of 1939
5.727/11
Mary and Larry are are a modestly successful skating team. Shortly after their marriage, Mary gets a picture contract, while Larry is sitting at home,...
Watch Now
The Ice Follies of 1939
1930
Holiday
6.25/24
A young man is torn between his free-thinking lifestyle and the tradition of his wealthy fiancée's family.
Watch Now
Holiday
1934
Sadie McKee
6.958/24
A maid has romances with a two-timer, a boozing millionaire and the master of the house.
Watch Now
Sadie McKee
1919
The Lady Clare
9/1
A Lord weds a Lady despite discovering that she is a substituted village child. Based on the poem Lady Clare by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Watch Now
The Lady Clare
1948
The Black Arrow
5.545/11
A young British nobleman comes back from fighting in the War of the Roses to discover that his father has been murdered by an old family friend who is...
Watch Now