Bonita Granville Trailers
Hollywood’s Children TrailerThe Legend of the Lone Ranger TrailerThe Velvet Alley Trailer
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).
Most Popular Bonita Granville Trailers
Total trailers found: 61
08 July 1938
An impoverished widow fights scandal for the sake of her four children.
15 June 1946
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.
11 October 1940
Magazine editor Margot Merrick pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from male colleagues.
04 December 1941
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.
26 April 1940
An out-of-work professor gets a break from an old college buddy to teach at an exclusive girl's school.
12 February 1937
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.
22 March 1947
Two friends land in hot water when they begin dating twins and one of the women ends up dead.
18 November 1942
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.
25 April 1942
Two autograph hounds attend an air show at Santa Anita racetrack.
26 August 1939
A young man just released from a reformatory moves to a new neighborhood with his sister, intending to start a new life.
28 January 1972
A two-part episode of the original Lassie television series (that aired in 1971) made into a single TV-movie.
19 November 1933
In a deeply cloistered convent, nun Dorothea Wieck raises a foundling to be Evelyn Venable. But at 17, what if, guided by a kindly doctor, she sees the world and finds love?
02 May 1941
An ice skater sues Kildare (Lew Ayres) for malpractice after his roadside first aid leaves her paralyzed.
24 January 1941
A medicine show man tries to con people into believing he's a legitimate stage actor.
28 February 1936
Frank Sr. sells his supplies to Hook, but then Hook has the Bannion Boys bushwhack his wagon to get the money back.
23 June 1938
A homeless woman named Hannah drifts into the lives of the kindly Ward family, in a small Indiana town in 1919.
26 March 1937
In the 1810s, an old maid poses as her own niece in order to teach her onetime beau a lesson.
12 October 1945
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.
20 February 1950
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.
04 March 1938
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.
21 June 1944
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.
14 June 1934
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.
01 September 1944
The teens of a defense-plant town hop on the road to juvenile delinquency while their parents are busy with the war.
22 October 1942
A woman suffers a nervous breakdown and from an oppressive mother before being freed by the love of a man she meets on a cruise.
22 May 1942
A young trumpeter rises through the jazz world and finds love.
15 November 1940
When a teenager's father is accused of murder, the boy and his high-school classmates set out to find the real killer.
01 November 1940
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.
27 May 1932
A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Europe years later after she has remarried.
04 May 1944
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.
31 December 1938
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
17 April 1937
The various members of the middle-class Hilton family have a series of romantic misadventures during one eventful spring day.
06 August 1981
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.
25 December 1946
Andy Hardy goes to college after serving in the war and finds his sweetheart is engaged to someone else.
08 February 1933
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.
08 September 1942
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
26 February 1946
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.
20 June 1940
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.
01 April 1946
A young attorney (Bonita Granville) is convinced a murder suspect is innocent in the killing of his wife.
19 November 1938
After a wealthy dowager who has made a substantial donation to her alma mater suddenly disappears, Nancy Drew sets out to solve the mystery.
02 August 1978
Lassie is claimed from his family by a "former owner" and then braves a cross country trip to rejoin the ones that love her.
08 October 1937
An infatuated debutante renews a Shakespearean actor's running feud with his leading lady.
20 July 1945
The title character, played by Bonita Granville, is the secretary at a boys' reformatory. Sociology professor Noah Beery Jr.
14 October 1936
The star-crossed desert romance of a cloistered woman and a renegade monk.
01 August 1941
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.
18 March 1936
Close friends Martha and Karen build a private boarding school together with the aid of the local doctor Joe.
25 February 1956
The territorial governor asks the Lone Ranger to investigate mysterious raids on settlers by Indians who ride with saddles.
15 August 1941
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.
18 February 1939
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.
17 June 1939
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.
01 December 1948
When not drinking and fighting, three wildcatters in search of a gusher are enthusiastically drilling for black gold.
24 February 1982
A documentary about child actors, since the beginning of motion pictures (narrated by Roddy McDowell).
26 December 1936
A husband clashes with his wife over his membership to the Irish citizen army during the Easter rebellion.
22 December 1932
A farmer strikes it rich out West, then leaves his wife for a young beauty.
09 September 1939
Nancy helps two aging spinsters fulfill the byzantine provisions of their father's will, but the murder of their chauffeur complicates matters.
25 December 1935
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.
06 January 1943
This lurid exposé of the Hitler Youth follows the woes of an American girl declared legally German by the Nazi government.
30 April 1938
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.
01 January 1969
The Scottish collie Lassie goes to Alaska. There Lassie meets the Indian boy Neeka, who stays in the woods with his stepfather, who is a Ranger.
14 July 1940
At a family gathering, an elderly man reflects on the follies of his youth during his freshman year at college.
05 November 1938
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.
