Carol Goodner

Carol Marie Goodner (May 30, 1904 – November 29, 2001) was an American actress born in New York City whose career spanned Broadway, British film, and television. She performed on Broadway from 1926 to 1961, appearing in productions that included They Walk Alone, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Lovers and Friends, and the drama The Wookey.

Goodner began performing as a toe dancer at the age of four, continuing until she was nine, when she turned her attention to school. Her first New York stage success came in 1926, and the following year she made her London debut in The Butter and Egg Man at the Garrick Theatre. Among her most notable Broadway contributions was creating the role of Lorraine Sheldon in The Man Who Came to Dinner, a character loosely based on actress Gertrude Lawrence. In 1937, she took on the title role in John Van Druten's play Gertie Maude at St Martin's Theatre in London.

Her film work was concentrated primarily in Britain. She appeared in her first film, Those Who Love, in 1929, and went on to accumulate credits throughout the 1930s, including The Ringer (1931), The Flying Squad (1932), Strange Evidence (1933), The Fire Raisers (1934), Red Ensign (1934), Mimi (1935), and A Royal Divorce (1938), among others. With the outbreak of war in 1939, Goodner returned to the United States and resumed her stage career in New York, making no further films. She retired in 1957.

In her personal life, Goodner married Thomas Marshall, a real estate man, in New York City on May 14, 1940. She later married actor Frederic Hunter in New Orleans on January 30, 1949. On July 27, 1944, she filed a voluntary petition of bankruptcy in federal court, listing $340 in assets and $2,793 in liabilities. Goodner died on November 29, 2001, in Katonah, New York.