BONITA GRANVILLE

Bonita Granville was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1923. Her parents were actors, and she made her first movie when she was nine. After several minor roles, she was cast as the girl making false accusations in These Three in 1936, which got her noticed, but didn't lead to much better roles. In 1938 she played the lead in the very successful Nancy Drew, Detective (and three sequels the following year) and this is the role she is best remembered for. First release movie paper from any of these four movies is extremely scarce and commands premium prices! She was able to successfully make the transition from teen actress to adult actress, but while she made 26 movies between 1940 and 1948, none of them were all that notable. She had major roles in minor movies (like Hitler's Children) and minor roles in major movies (like Now, Voyager). In 1946, she was in The Guilty, which was produced by Jack Wrather, the Texas oil millionaire, who had decided to produce movies. The following year Wrather divorced his wife and married Granville. At this point she mostly retired from movies and had two children with Wrather, and worked full-time in his businesses, which had greatly expanded in the early 1950s, when he bought the rights to The Lone Ranger, and he moved into TV in a big way, producing The Lone Ranger and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and Granville herself became the producer of the Lassie TV show, and she remained producer all the way to 1973. Wrather also helped out Walt Disney by building and owning the Disneyland Hotel, when Disney could not get any more credit after building the park itself. Once the park was successful, he wanted to buy the hotel, but Wrather refused, and it wasn't until after Wrather's, Disney's, and Granville's deaths that the Disney company finally acquired the hotel, and then only by buying Wrather's entire company. Wrather passed away in 1984, and Granville four years later. She had an interesting film career, and was surely an important part of her husband's great success in television. She passed away in 1988 at the age of 65.