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Changing her name to Deanna Durbin at the
commencement of her career, Durbin signed a
contract with MGM|MGM Studios in 1936 and made her
first film appearance in a short subject with
another contractee, Judy Garland.  She made her
first film Three Smart Girls in 1936. 

Durbin was released from her contract shortly
thereafter as studio executive Louis B. Mayer felt
he did not need two young female singers under
contract.  Hollywood legend has recorded that he
instructed his staff to "drop the fat one" and
that they had dismissed Durbin, misunderstanding
that Mayer had in fact intended to terminate the
contract of Garland. 

Durbin was quickly signed to a contract with
Universal Studios and the huge success of her
films were reported to have saved the studio from
bankruptcy.   In 1938 she received a special
Academy Juvenile Award, along with Mickey Rooney.

She married an actor, Vaughn Paul, in 1941 and
they were divorced in 1943. Her second marriage,
to Felix Jackson, a writer, in 1945, produced her
only child, Jessica Jackson, and ended in divorce
in 1949.

By the late 1940s Durbin had tried to assume a
more sophisticated film persona in such films as
the whodunnit Lady On A Train (1945), but the
public preferred her as the sweet and wholesome
adolescent she had come to represent.  

She retired from public life in 1950, after her
marriage to Charles David, who had directed her in
Lady On A Train.   The couple moved to Paris,
France with Durbin stating she would never return
to show business.  Since then she has resisted all
offers to perform and has refused to be
interviewed, steadfastly asserting her right to
privacy.    David died in Paris on March 1, 1999.

Deanna Durbin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame at 1722 Vine St.

==Filmography==
*Every Sunday (1936) (short subject)
*Three Smart Girls (1936)
*One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)
*Mad About Music (1938)
*That Certain Age (1938)
*Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) 
*For Auld Lang Syne: No. 4 (1939) (short subject)
*First Love (Obzina film)|First Love (1939)
*It's a Date (1940)
*Spring Parade (1940)
*Nice Girl? (1941)
*It Started with Eve (1941)
*The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943)
*Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
*Hers to Hold (1943)
*His Butler's Sister (1943)
*Road to Victory (1944) (short subject)
*Christmas Holiday (1944)
*Can't Help Singing (1944)
*Lady on a Train (1945)
*Because of Him (1946)
*I'll Be Yours (1947)
*Something in the Wind (1947)
*Up in Central Park (1948)
*For the Love of Mary (1948)