Bonita Granville
Also Known As: Bonita Granville Wrather, Bonita Gloria Granville Wrather
Biography: Daughter of Bernard 'Bunny' Granville and Rosina Timponi, Bonita Granville was born into an acting family on 2 Febuary 1923, in New York, New York. It's not surprising that she herself became a child actor, first on the stage and, at the age of 9, debuting in movies in Westward Passage (1932). She was regularly cast as a naughty little girl, as in These Three (1936) where she played Mary, an obnoxious girl spreading lies about her teachers. Her performance left an impression on the audience, and she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award. In 1938-39 came the movies she is now best remembered for -- playing the bright and feisty detective/reporter Nancy Drew in the Nancy Drew series. She also appeared with Mickey Rooney in a few Andy Hardy movies. She never really had a movie breakthrough, and after marrying oil millionaire and later producer Jack Wrather, she retired from acting in the middle of the 1950s, although she went on to produce the Lassie (1954) TV series. After her marriage to oil millionaire Jack Wrather in 1947, she appeared in only three more movies. She became an executive in the Wrather Corp., and first associate producer, then executive producer of the Lassie (1954) TV series. After Wrather's death in 1984, she took over as chairman of the board. She was also involved in many civic and cultural groups, and she was chair of American Film Institute, trustee of John F. Kennedy Center, as well as other well known organizations and charities. Walt Disney personally convinced the Wrathers to build the Disneyland Hotel when Disney could not raise the money to do so -- his credit was all tied up in building the theme park itself. After the phenomenal success of Disneyland, Disney attempted to buy the hotel; but the Wrathers steadfastly refused to sell. Long after Jack and Bonita Wrather's and Walt Disney's deaths, the Disney Company bought the Wrather Corporation. The Disney Company thus acquired the Disneyland Hotel, the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose attractions in Long Beach, California, the rights to The Lone Ranger (1949) TV series, as well as other properties. Bonita Granville Rather died of cancer on 11 October 1988, in Santa Monica, California. She and Wrather had four children (two from Wrather's first marriage).
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
Birthday: February 02, 1923
Deathday: October 11, 1988
Adult: No
Gender: Female
Popularity:
Known For:
The Mortal Storm
Overview: The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. After the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Breitner, a family friend, is caught up in the turmoil.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-06-20
Popularity:
Nancy Drew... Reporter
Overview: While participating in a contest at a local newspaper in which school children are asked to submit a news story, local attorney Carson Drew's daughter Nancy intercepts a real story assignment. She "covers" the inquest of the death of a woman who was poisoned. Nancy doesn't think the young woman accused of the crime is guilty and corrals her neighbor Ted into searching for a vital piece of evidence and stumbles onto the identity of the real killer.
Genres: Comedy Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-02-18
Popularity:
Suspense
Overview: The proprietor of an ice-skating revue promotes a peanut-vendor to a management position based on suggestions he made to improve the act of the show's star, who also happens to be the owner's wife. However, he soon begins to notice that his new manager is paying more attention to his wife than he believes is appropriate.
Genres: Thriller Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-06-15
Popularity:
Now, Voyager
Overview: A woman suffers a nervous breakdown and an oppressive mother before being freed by the love of a man she meets on a cruise.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-10-22
Popularity:
The Guilty
Overview: Two friends land in hot water when they begin dating twins and one of the women ends up dead.
Genres: Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-03-22
Popularity:
Love Laughs at Andy Hardy
Overview: Andy Hardy goes to college after serving in the war and finds his sweetheart is engaged to someone else.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-12-25
Popularity:
The Glass Key
Overview: A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Genres: Crime Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-09-08
Popularity:
Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase
Overview: Nancy helps two aging spinsters fulfill the byzantine provisions of their father's will, but the murder of their chauffeur complicates matters.
Genres: Comedy Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-09-09
Popularity:
Nancy Drew… Detective
Overview: After a wealthy dowager who has made a substantial donation to her alma mater suddenly disappears, Nancy Drew sets out to solve the mystery.
Genres: Comedy Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-11-19
Popularity:
Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter
Overview: When a close friend of the Drew family is accused of murder in a rural community, Nancy, aided by boyfriend Ted, helps her lawyer father expose the real killers.
Genres: Comedy Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-06-17
Popularity:
Little Women
Overview: Four sisters come of age during the American Civil War. With their father away fighting, the family, headed by their mother, experiences tribulations, joy, and kindness from their wealthy neighbor and his high-spirited grandson.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-11-24
Popularity:
Third Finger, Left Hand
Overview: Magazine editor Margot Merrick pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from male colleagues. Unfortunately, things don't go to plan when Jeff Thompson, a potential suitor, uncovers the deception and decides to show up at Margot's family home posing as her husband!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-10-11
Popularity:
These Three
Overview: Close friends Martha and Karen build a private boarding school together with the aid of the local doctor Joe. The school takes off and many students enroll, one of whom is a trouble-maker who tells a scandalous lie that threatens to destroy the trio's lives.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-03-18
Popularity:
Cavalcade
Overview: A cavalcade of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 is seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners Jane and Robert Marryot. Amongst events touching their family are the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, and the Great War.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-02-08
Popularity:
Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble
Overview: Andy is going to Wainwright College as did his father. He sees a pretty blonde on the train and he is alternately winked at or slapped every time he sees her. Andy is clueless. On the train Andy meets Kay and Dr. Standish who are both headed for Wainwright. Andy likes Kay, but Dr. Standish also seems to take an interest in her. Things are going well at College with Kay, but the blonde is nice one minute and ignores Andy the next. When Andy finds out that the blonde is really identical twins, he tries to help them out with their father but gets caught at their rooming house after midnight.
Genres: Comedy Family Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-05-04
Popularity:
Youth Runs Wild
Overview: The teens of a defense-plant town hop on the road to juvenile delinquency while their parents are busy with the war.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-09-01
Popularity:
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
Overview: A middle-aged businessman who has lived a conservative life according to the routine conventions of society, still remembers the beautiful young woman who once brought him out of his shell.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-12-04
Popularity:
Syncopation
Overview: A young trumpeter rises through the jazz world and finds love.
Genres: Music Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-05-22
Popularity:
Hitler's Children
Overview: This lurid exposé of the Hitler Youth follows the woes of an American girl declared legally German by the Nazi government.
Genres: Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-01-06
Popularity:
It's Love I'm After
Overview: An infatuated debutante renews a Shakespearean actor's running feud with his leading lady.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-10-08
Popularity:
Forty Little Mothers
Overview: An out-of-work professor gets a break from an old college buddy to teach at an exclusive girl's school. But events conspire against him: he finds an abandoned child which he takes under his wing, despite the school's rules against teachers having a family; and the girls in the school resent his replacing a handsome and popular teacher, and do everything in their power to get him fired.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-04-26
Popularity:
The Lone Ranger
Overview: The territorial governor asks the Lone Ranger to investigate mysterious raids on settlers by Indians who ride with saddles. Wealthy rancher Reese Kilgore wants to mine silver on Spirit Mountain which is sacred to the Indians.
Genres: Adventure Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-02-25
Popularity:
White Banners
Overview: A homeless woman named Hannah drifts into the lives of the kindly Ward family, in a small Indiana town in 1919. Hannah makes herself useful as a cook and housekeeper and stays with the Wards... but her real interest is in meeting their neighbor, teenager Peter Trimble. It turns out that Peter is the son she bore out of wedlock and gave up for adoption, and now Hannah has returned to town to see what sort of young man her son has become.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-06-23
Popularity:
Angels Wash Their Faces
Overview: A young man just released from a reformatory moves to a new neighborhood with his sister, intending to start a new life. However, he gets mixed up with the local mob boss and corrupt politicians and soon finds himself being framed for an arson and murder he didn't commit.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-08-26
Popularity:
Escape
Overview: An American goes to pre-war Germany to find his mother and discovers her in a concentration camp. With the help of an American-born widowed countess he seeks to engineer her escape.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-11-01
Popularity:
Seven Miles from Alcatraz
Overview: After Pearl Harbor, convicts at Alcatraz prison live in fear of bomb attacks, driving Champ Larkin and his pal Jimbo to a desperate escape attempt which lands them on a tiny lighthouse island, where they take over. The five inhabitants are stymied in their efforts to summon aid. But the island also figures in the schemes of a big Nazi spy ring; which will win out, the gangsters' greed or their patriotism?
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-11-18
Popularity:
Merrily We Live
Overview: Society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome tramp who shows up at her doorstep and ends up in a chauffeur's uniform. He also catches the eye of Geraldine.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-03-04
Popularity:
The People Vs. Dr. Kildare
Overview: An ice skater sues Kildare (Lew Ayres) for malpractice after his roadside first aid leaves her paralyzed.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-05-02
Popularity:
Breakfast in Hollywood
Overview: The goings on of a few members of a radio show's audience is the premise for this feature film derived from the popular ABC radio show of the 1940s. This film features Tom Breneman, the radio show's host, as well as Bonita Granville, Beulah Bondi, Zasu Pitts, Billie Burke and Hedda Hopper. Musical performances are provided by Nat King Cole and the King Cole Trio, along with Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-02-26
Popularity:
Call It a Day
Overview: The various members of the middle-class Hilton family have a series of romantic misadventures during one eventful spring day.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-04-17
Popularity:
Song of the Saddle
Overview: Frank Sr. sells his supplies to Hook, but then Hook has the Bannion Boys bushwhack his wagon to get the money back. Frank is murdered, but Junior gets away. He comes back 10 years later to settle the score as the Singing Cowboy. He finds that Hook is still doing his dirty deeds on the unsuspecting people. Along the way, Frank meets the lovely Jen, who came out in the same wagon train 10 years before.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-02-28
Popularity:
The Wild Man of Borneo
Overview: A medicine show man tries to con people into believing he's a legitimate stage actor.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-01-24
Popularity:
Screen Snapshots Series 21 No. 1
Overview: This edition of Screen Snapshots has more of a vaudeville flavor as opposed to Ralph Staub's usual candid-camera at home with the stars offerings. Ken Murray, assisted by the Brewer Twins, is the MC, while the Andrews Sisters sing "In Apple Blossom Time" and the pre-"Uncle Miltie" Milton Berle plays his clarinet. The rest of the players, with contract-player faces belonging to 20th-Century Fox, RKO Radio, Universal and Columbia, just pass through. Production Number 3851.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-15
Popularity:
Those Were the Days!
Overview: At a family gathering, an elderly man reflects on the follies of his youth during his freshman year at college.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-07-14
Popularity:
The Beloved Brat
Overview: Roberta Morgan is being raised in a wealthy home where her mother is occupied with her society-club activities and her father is immersed in his business activities. She also feels that the household staff is against her and that no one understands her needs and problems. Things spiral out of control.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-04-30
Popularity:
Gallant Sons
Overview: When a teenager's father is accused of murder, the boy and his high-school classmates set out to find the real killer.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-11-15
Popularity:
Song of the Open Road
Overview: A beautiful child star tires of life in the spotlight and so disguises herself and sneaks off to join a Civilian Conservation Corps camp to work with normal kids. It doesn't take her long to discover that being "normal" isn't easy as it looks. When a crop is in danger of being ruined because there are not enough people to harvest it, the girl employs some of her famous colleagues to lend a hand. Songs include: "Too Much in Love," "Here It Is Monday," "Delightfully Dangerous," "Hawaiian War Chant" and "Notre Dame."
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-06-21
Popularity:
The Truth About Murder
Overview: A young attorney (Bonita Granville) is convinced a murder suspect is innocent in the killing of his wife.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-04-01
Popularity:
Hard to Get
Overview: When spoiled young heiress Maggie Richards tries to charge some gasoline at an auto camp run by Bill Davis, he makes her work out her bill by making beds. Resolving to get even, she pretends to have forgiven him, and sends him to her father to get financing for a plan Bill has. What happens next was not part of her original revenge plan.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-11-05
Popularity:
Westward Passage
Overview: A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Europe years later after she has remarried.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-05-27
Popularity:
My Bill
Overview: An impoverished widow fights scandal for the sake of her four children.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-07-08
Popularity:
Guilty of Treason
Overview: The story of Cardinal Josef Mindzhenty, a Roman Catholic cardinal from Hungary who spoke out against both the Nazi occupation of his country during World War II and the Communist regime that replaced it after the war.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-02-20
Popularity:
The Life of Vergie Winters
Overview: A small town politician, kept from marrying the love of his life, eventually marries another woman and his career ascends, but he secretly continues the relationship with his true love.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-06-14
Popularity:
Maid of Salem
Overview: When a young woman named Barbara Clarke has an affair with adventurer Roger Coverman, it causes a scandal in the Puritanical town of Salem, Massachusetts. After a meddling girl arouses their suspicions, the town's elders accuse Barbara of being a witch. She is tried, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. As the townspeople prepare to burn Barbara at the stake, Roger tries desperately to save the woman he loves.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-02-12
Popularity:
The Beautiful Cheat
Overview: The title character, played by Bonita Granville, is the secretary at a boys' reformatory. Sociology professor Noah Beery Jr. shows up to study the juvenile-delinquent mindset. Not surprisingly, he ends up taking a post-grad course in amour from the winsome Ms. Granville.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-07-20
Popularity:
Soaring Stars
Overview: Two autograph hounds attend an air show at Santa Anita racetrack.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-04-25
Popularity:
The Plough and the Stars
Overview: A husband clashes with his wife over his membership to the Irish citizen army during the Easter rebellion.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-12-26
Popularity:
Strike It Rich
Overview: When not drinking and fighting, three wildcatters in search of a gusher are enthusiastically drilling for black gold. The trouble begins when one of them grows dissatisfied with their lifestyle and quits so he can be with his new wife. Unfortunately for him, soon after he leaves, the other two find their gusher and become filthy rich. The impoverished quitter is envious and begins looking for an obscure law that will force his pals to share.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-12-01
Popularity:
Ah, Wilderness!
Overview: At the turn of the century, a young man graduates high school and realizes the joys and sorrows of growing up, with some loving help and guidance from his wise father. A tender, coming-of-age story, with a wonderful look at a long-gone, but fondly remembered, small town America.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-12-25
Popularity:
Quality Street
Overview: In the 1810s, an old maid poses as her own niece in order to teach her onetime beau a lesson.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-03-26
Popularity:
Silver Dollar
Overview: A farmer strikes it rich out West, then leaves his wife for a young beauty.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-12-22
Popularity:
Senorita from the West
Overview: Determined to become a radio singer, a young girl runs away from her family. She hooks up with a man who is actually the real voice of a famous radio crooner, who actually can't sing at all.
Genres: Comedy Music Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-10-12
Popularity:
Cradle Song
Overview: In a deeply cloistered convent, nun Dorothea Wieck (Mädchen in Uniform) raises a foundling to be Evelyn Venable. But at 17, what if, guided by a kindly doctor, she sees the world and finds love?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-11-19
Popularity:
Down in San Diego
Overview: A group of neighborhood teenagers discover some suspicious goings-on near a naval base in San Diego, and suspect that a foreign espionage ring is at work trying to find out military secrets.
Genres: Adventure Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-01
Popularity:
The Garden of Allah
Overview: The star-crossed desert romance of a cloistered woman and a renegade monk.
Genres: Drama Romance Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-10-14
Popularity:
The Legend of the Lone Ranger
Overview: When the young Texas Ranger, John Reid, is the sole survivor of an ambush arranged by the militaristic outlaw leader, Butch Cavendich, he is rescued by an old childhood Comanche friend, Tonto. When he recovers from his wounds, he dedicates his life to fighting the evil that Cavendich represents. To this end, John Reid becomes the great masked western hero, The Lone Ranger. With the help of Tonto, the pair go to rescue President Grant when Cavendich takes him hostage.
Genres: Action Adventure Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-08-06
Popularity:
The Velvet Alley
Overview: Ernie Pandish has tried to be a writer for years and has never made much money out of it. But now he seems likely to hit the big-time.
Genres: TV Movie Drama Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-01-22
Popularity:
Breakdowns of 1938
Overview: Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
Genres: Documentary Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-12-31
Popularity:
Hollywood’s Children
Overview: A documentary about child actors, since the beginning of motion pictures (narrated by Roddy McDowell).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-02-24
Popularity: