When Pasternak learned that Durbin was no longer with MGM, he instead cast her in the film. When producer Joe Pasternak cast the film, he wanted to borrow Garland from MGM, but Garland was not available at the time. She was 14 years old when she made her first feature-length film, Three Smart Girls (1936). Mayer decided to sign both, but by then Durbins contract option had lapsed. ![]() The film was intended as a demonstration of their talent as performers as studio executives had questioned the wisdom of casting two female singers together. MGM casting director Rufus LeMaire heard about a talented young soloist performing with the Ralph Thomas Academy and called her in for an audition.ĭurbin sang Il Bacio for the studios vocal coach, who was stunned by her mature soprano voice. When she was an infant, her family moved from Winnipeg to Southern California, and her parents became United States citizens in 1923. ![]() Heckman, born in England, died in California). She had one older sister, Edith (later Mrs. ![]() She married film producer-director Charles Henri David in 1950, and the couple moved to a farmhouse near Paris. The film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945) were, however, not as well received as her musical comedies and romances had been.ĭurbin retired from acting and singing in 1949, and withdrew from public life, granting only one interview for the remainder of her life, in 1983.
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