1906-08-31 Temple, Texas, USA
Noel Francis was born in Temple, Texas in 1906. By age 20 she was appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies, working opposite the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey. Eventually Fox scouts noticed her and in 1929 she was signed to a Hollywood contract. Because of her Follies background, Fox intended to develop Noel as a musical and dance star. Unfortunately, musicals were on the wane at the time (they did rebound) and her contract was dropped. Luckily, she was picked up by Warner Brothers, and featured in a number of films that had her portraying the tough talking, sassy female connected to gangsters, convicts, and other underworld types, so popular with the movie going public then and now. Noel was rarely given the lead female role, though she worked near the top with some of the era's best actors in films that included Smart Money (1931), in which she is a scheming blonde helping Edward G. Robinson lose his money, and Blonde Crazy (1931), where her target is James Cagney. Her most noted performance was in I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), working with Paul Muni in one of his strongest performances. However, perhaps because of being typecast, she found herself in "B" productions after 1932, though one was as the lead female, in Mayfair Picture Corporation's 1934 What's Your Racket?, opposite Regis Toomey. Needing work, Noel returned to Broadway, but couldn't resume her career there, and returned to Hollywood to make three final films with Buck Jones, including Stone of Silver Creek (1935), in which she used her Broadway musical expertise to play a saloon singer. Between 1929 and 1937 Noel made 47 films. She died October 30, 1959 in Los Angeles, California.
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Sudden Bill Dorn | Lorna Kent | 1937-12-01 |
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Left-Handed Law | Betty Golden | 1937-03-31 |
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Stone of Silver Creek | Lola | 1935-04-14 |
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Mutiny Ahead | Mimi | 1935-03-01 |
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The White Cockatoo | Elise | 1935-01-29 |
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The Loudspeaker | Dolly | 1934-06-01 |
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Fifteen Wives | Ruby Cotton | 1934-07-15 |
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Imitation of Life | Mrs. Eden (uncredited) | 1934-11-23 |
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Strictly Dynamite | Lady Waiting in Georgie's Lobby (uncredited) | 1934-05-11 |
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Good Dame | Puff Warner | 1934-03-16 |
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Only Yesterday | Letitia | 1933-11-01 |
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Hold Me Tight | Trudie Holmes | 1933-05-20 |
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Havana Widows | Gladys Gable (uncredited) | 1933-11-18 |
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Blood Money | Red's Girlfriend (uncredited) | 1933-11-17 |
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Son of a Sailor | Queenie | 1933-11-29 |
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The Important Witness | Ellen Kelly | 1933-07-15 |
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Reform Girl | Lydia Johnson | 1933-03-04 |
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Bureau of Missing Persons | Alice Crane | 1933-09-16 |
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Under-Cover Man | Connie | 1932-12-02 |
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Night Court | Lil Baker | 1932-06-04 |
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Guilty as Hell | Julia Reed | 1932-08-05 |
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The Mouthpiece | Miss DeVere | 1932-03-21 |
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Flames | Pat | 1932-05-29 |
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Manhattan Tower | Marge Lyon | 1932-12-01 |
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So Big! | Mabel | 1932-04-30 |
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My Pal, the King | Princess Elsa | 1932-04-03 |
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I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang | Linda | 1932-11-09 |
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The Expert | Daisy | 1932-03-05 |
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Ladies of the Big House | Thelma | 1931-12-26 |
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Smart Money | Marie | 1931-06-11 |
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Blonde Crazy | Helen Wilson | 1931-09-16 |
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Bachelor Apartment | Janet | 1931-04-15 |
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Smart Woman | Peggy Preston | 1931-09-12 |
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New Movietone Follies of 1930 | Gloria de Witt | 1930-05-04 |
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Up the River | Sophie (uncredited) | 1930-10-10 |
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Rough Romance | Flossie | 1930-06-15 |
