Introduction
Marion Byron (born Miriam Bilenkin; March 16, 1911, Dayton, Ohio – July 5, 1985, Santa Monica, California) was a petite (4'11" in high heels) American movie comedian.
Career
After following her sister into a short stage career as a singer/dancer, she was given her first movie role as Buster Keaton's leading lady in the film Steamboat Bill Jr. in 1928. From there she was hired by Hal Roach to co-star in short subjects with Max Davidson, Edgar Kennedy, and Charley Chase, but most significantly with Anita Garvin, where tiny (4'11" in high heels) Marion was teamed with the 6' Anita for a brief 3-film series as a "female Laurel & Hardy" in 1928–1929.
She left Roach before they made talkies, but she went on working, now in musical features, like the Vitaphone film Broadway Babies (1929) with Alice White, and the early Technicolor feature, Golden Dawn (1930).
Her parts slowly got smaller until they were unbilled walk-ons in films like Meet the Baron (1933), starring Jack Pearl and Hips Hips Hooray (1934) with Wheeler & Woolsey. Her final screen appearance was as a baby nurse to the Dionne Quintuplets in their film, Five of a Kind (1938).
Family
She married screenwriter Lou Breslow in 1932 and they had two sons, Lawrence Samuel Breslow (born 1939) and Daniel Robert Breslow (1944–1998). Marion Byron Breslow is buried at Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, California.
Selected filmography
- Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
- A Pair of Tights (1928)
- Broadway Babies (1929)
- The Forward Pass (1929) - Mazie
- So Long Letty (1929)
- Playing Around (1930)
- Golden Dawn (1930)
- The Heart of New York (1932)
- Meet the Baron (1933)
- Hips Hips Hooray (1934)
- Five of a Kind (1938)