Genevieve Tobin

Genevieve Tobin (November 29, 1901 – July 31, 1995) was an American actress born in New York City who built a career spanning Broadway and Hollywood across several decades. She received her education in Paris and New York before concentrating on stage work in New York.

Tobin's Broadway career began in 1912 with her stage debut in Disraeli and continued through 1929. Her credits during this period included The Youngest, Treat 'em Rough, This Woman Business, and Murray Hill. Though she appeared most frequently in comedies, she also took on dramatic work, including the role of Cordelia in a Broadway production of King Lear in 1923. As a child she appeared in several films and performed in a double act alongside her sister Vivian; their brother George also pursued a brief acting career.

Her Broadway work culminated in a notable success with the musical Fifty Million Frenchmen in 1929, in which she introduced the Cole Porter song "You Do Something to Me." That achievement drew her back to Hollywood, where she worked steadily in comedy films from the early 1930s onward. She appeared in supporting roles opposite performers including Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Joan Blondell, and Kay Francis, while also taking starring roles in films such as Golden Harvest (1933) and Easy to Love (1934). In 1935 she portrayed Della Street, secretary to Warren William's Perry Mason, in The Case of the Lucky Legs. The following year she appeared in The Petrified Forest (1936), a drama starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart, in the role of a wealthy businessman's bored wife.

Tobin married film director William Keighley in 1938, after which her screen appearances became infrequent. Her final film before retirement was No Time for Comedy (1940), with James Stewart and Rosalind Russell. She remained married to Keighley until his death in 1984. Tobin died on July 31, 1995.