Fabulous Photos of Genevieve Tobin in the 1920s and ’30s

 

Born 1899 in New York City, American actress Genevieve Tobin had her stage debut in Disraeli in 1912. She appeared in a few films as a child and formed a double act with her sister Vivian. In 1929, she achieved a significant success in the play Fifty Million Frenchmen. She introduced and popularized the Cole Porter song “You Do Something to Me”, and the success of the role led her back to Hollywood, where she performed regularly in comedy films from the early 1930s.

Tobin played prominent supporting roles opposite such performers as Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Joan Blondell, and Kay Francis, but occasionally played starring roles, in films such as Golden Harvest (1933) and Easy to Love (1934). One of her most successful performances was as the bored wife of a wealthy businessman in the drama The Petrified Forest (1936), starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart.

Tobin married director William Keighley in 1938 and made only a few more films; her final film before retirement was No Time for Comedy (1940), with James Stewart and Rosalind Russell. She remained married to Keighley until his death in 1984.

Tobin died in 1995 in Pasadena, California, at the age of 95. Take a look at these fabulous photos to see the beauty of young Genevieve Tobin in the 1920s and 1930s.