Marilyn Erskine

• Name — Marilyn Erskine • Birth Name — Marilyn Erskine • Born — 24 April 1926 • Birthplace — Rochester, New York, U.S. • Children — 2 • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1929–1972

Erskine was born in Rochester, New York on April 24, 1926, and was in show business from early childhood. She moved with her family to New York, circa 1932, at which point she began attending the Professional Children's School, which she continued to do, intermittently, for almost a decade.

Erskine started her performing career at the age of three years, appearing on a local radio show in Buffalo, New York. She also appeared on the nationwide CBS radio show Let's Pretend sometime between 1929 and 1937, where children played all the roles in adaptions of fairy tales and other children's stories. She played Gail Carver in the soap opera Lora Lawton, which ran on NBC 1943–1950, Jane Brown on Young Widder Brown, which ran on NBC 1938–1956, and Cherry Martin in The Romance of Helen Trent, which ran on CBS 1933–1960. Erskine performed the role of Jane Baxter in Orson Welles's Mercury Theater on the Air adaptation of Seventeen (October 16, 1938). Erskine starred as Eva Wallace in the 1939 Broadway production of The Primrose Path. In 1945, she was a member of the cast of the syndicated comedy Keeping Up with Wigglesworth. As a teenager, she appeared in at least nine Broadway productions in New York City, including the original production of Thornton Wilder's classic play Our Town: • Excursion (playing Eileen Loschavio) April 9, 1937 – July?, 1937 • The Ghost of Yankee Doodle (playing Patience Garrison) November 22, 1937 – January?, 1938 • Our Town (playing Rebecca Gibbs) February 4, 1938 – November 19, 1938 • The Primrose Path (playing Eva Wallace) January 4, 1939 – May?, 1939 • Goodbye in the Night (playing Gertie) March 18–23, 1940 • Ring Around Elizabeth (playing Mercedes) November 17–25, 1941 • What Big Ears! (playing Betty Leeds) April 20–25, 1942 • Nine Girls (playing Shirley) January 13–16, 1943 • Pretty Little Parlor (playing Anastasia) April 17–22, 1944 As an adult, she appeared in at least one Broadway production in New York City and several Off-Broadway plays: • The Linden Tree (playing Dinah Linden) March 2–6, 1948 • Our Town (playing Emily Webb) 1953–1955

Erskine married Hollywood producer and director Stanley Kramer in May 1945. The marriage was annulled two months later. She later remarried, to insurance executive Charles Curland (1925–2012) in 1955, and had two children. Their home in Brentwood, California, was featured in an article in the Fall 1958 issue of Architectural Digest.

• Westward the Women (1951) playing Jean Johnson • Above and Beyond (1952) playing Marge Bratton • The Girl in White (1952) playing Nurse Jane Doe • The Hoaxters (1952) narrated by her • Just This Once (1952) playing Gertrude Crome • The Eddie Cantor Story (1953) playing Ida Tobias Cantor • A Slight Case of Larceny (1953) playing Mrs. Emily Clopp • Confidentially Connie (1953) playing Phyllis Archibald • Science Fiction Theater (1955–1956) Episodes "The Frozen Sound", "The Legend of Crater Mountain", "Sun Gold" • End of a Gun (1957) playing Peggy