Drue Leyton

Drue Leyton (born Dorothy Elizabeth Blackman;[1] 12 June 1903 – 8 February 1997)[2] was an American actress and member of the French Resistance. She also was billed as Freya Leigh.[3]

Early years

Leyton was born in California[3] (or Somers, Wisconsin)[1] but lived with her family in Mexico, where her father was a mining engineer. She was educated at the Bennett School for Girls in Millbrook, New York; a school in Lausanne, Switzerland; and at the Sorbonne.[3]

Acting

She became an actress after a failed marriage and acted in Green Grow the Lilacs on Broadway and several Charlie Chan films.[3][1] Her Broadway credits also included Red Harvest (1937), A Hero Is Born (1937),[4] and We Are No Longer Children (1932), for which she was billed as Freya Leigh.[5]

In 1937, Leyton acted in a Works Progress Administration Theatre Project in New York. She went from there to England, where she performed in Golden Boy.[6]

French resistance

In 1937 Leyton moved to Paris with her future husband Jacques Terrane (born Jacques Tartière), a Franco-American actor who died in Syria in 1941 fighting with the Free French forces.[7]

In France, Leyton produced and interviewed people on programs for Radio Mondial,[6] a shortwave radio station[8] operated by France's Ministry of Information. The programs were designed to promote France to an American audience.[6]

Leyton broadcast for the Voice of America while acting in Paris in 1938 and her criticisms of the Nazi regime during these broadcasts earned her a promise of execution announced by Berlin radio.[9] In September 1942, she was arrested by the Nazis after northern and western France came under German occupation — but only because she was an American woman, her true identity unknown to the authorities. She managed to escape from her prison camp with the help of French doctors by feigning cancer.[10] She returned to her home in Barbizon in 1942 and joined the resistance movement, helping 42 downed Allied airmen escape to freedom and hiding others in her home until the war ended.[1] During this period, she was known as Dorothy Tartière, using her married name.[11] She was assisted at times in hiding the airmen by Sylvia Beach, American-born owner of the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company.[3]

Leyton and M. H. Werner[12] wrote about this period in a book The House Near Paris.[13]

Personal life

Leyton met Tartière in New York in 1937, and they wed in 1938 in London.[6]

Death

On 2 February 1997, Leyton died in Corona del Mar, California.[2]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1934Change of HeartMrs. Gerald Mockby
1934Charlie Chan's CouragePaula Graham
1934Charlie Chan in LondonPamela Gray
1935Valley of Wanted MenSally Sanderson
1936Charlie Chan at the CircusNellie Farrell
1936Small Town GirlFeliciaUncredited
1936BlackmailerLydia Rankin
1936Alibi for MurderNorma Foster
1939Murder in SohoMyrtle

See also

References
  1. "Drue Leyton; Actress, Member of French Resistance". The Los Angeles Times. California, Los Angeles. February 11, 1997. p. 24. Retrieved 25 January 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 443. ISBN 9781476625997. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  3. Kirkpatrick, Helen (October 22, 1944). "Daring American Actress Sheltered Allied Fliers 2 Doors From Gestapo". The Pittsburgh Press. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. p. 14. Retrieved 24 January 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Drue Leyton". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on 24 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  5. "Freya Leigh". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on 24 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  6. Glass, Charles (2010). Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation. Penguin. ISBN 9781101195567. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  7. "TARTIÈRE FAMILY PAPERS, 1920‐1950" (PDF). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  8. Lyman, Robert (2018). Under a Darkening Sky: The American Experience in Nazi Europe: 1939-1941. Pegasus Books. ISBN 9781681779348. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  9. Ghémard, Jacques. "La comtesse vue par une Américaine, commentatrice radiophonique en France - Histomag 39-45 - forum "Livres de guerre"". www.livresdeguerre.net. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  10. Sebba, Anne (2016). Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation. St. Martin's Press. pp. 149–150. ISBN 9781466849563. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  11. Janes, Keith (2017-03-28). They came from Burgundy: A study of the Bourgogne escape line. Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9781788036474.
  12. "Lecturer Formerly in French Underground". The San Bernardino County Sun. California, San Bernardino. October 28, 1946. p. 7. Retrieved 25 January 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ""Lady Who Took Chances" by Theodore M. Purdy, The Saturday Review, Saturday, March 16th, 1946". UNZ.org. Retrieved 2017-06-08.



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