Biography
Though only 35 when she launched her movie career in 1941, American actress Barbara Brown was almost immediately typed in maternal roles. Brown went on to play
Joan Leslie's strict mother in
Hollywood Canteen (1944),
Ann Blyth's snooty mother-in-law in
Mildred Pierce (1945), reproving Mrs. Latham in Monogram's
Henry series (with
Walter Catlett and
Raymond Walburn) and haughty Mrs. Elizabeth Parker in Universal's
Ma and Pa Kettle films. She broke away from her standard characterization as girl's-school dean (and second-reel murder victim) Miss Keyes in
The Falcon and the Co-Eds (1943). Barbara Brown was still essaying movie moms at the time of her retirement in 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide