- Joan Barry, Blackmail, 1929. Just the voice… Talkies had arrived but with the primitive recording equipment led to unintelligible dialogue from Ondra, a Polish-Czech-Austrian-German-French accented singer-actress. In the first example of one actor dubbing another, Hitchcock chose Joan Barry to prove Anna’s lines. Again with the facilities of the day, this meant an out-of-shot Barry speaking Ondra’s lines into a microphone as Ondry mimed them in front of the camera! Hitch rewarded Barry with an on-screen role of her own in East of Shanghai, 1930. She retired four years later for marriage and motherhood. Joan Barry’s grandson, Andrew Ian Henry Russell, is presently the 15th Duke of Bedford, though he was born in Boston.
Birth year: 1902Death year: 1987Other name: Casting Calls: 1