The Deanna Durbin Database

On April 18, 1941, Deanna married cinematographer and Universal employee Vaughn Paul. She was just nineteen years old. During their marriage, Deanna refused to work upon a film entitled "They Lived Alone", supposedly because Universal was not offering her husband any work. Universal suspended Deanna on October 16, 1941, only to reinstate her on January 30, 1942. They gave her the right to approve her directors and her stories, but no possibility of work outside of the studio. Deanna was disappointed, as she had wanted this; when she first arrived at Universal, she was allowed only to commit all of the major songs from her films to disc. Vaughn Paul joined the U.S marines in 1942, and Deanna embarked upon a tour of eastern war camps. But the long separation took its toll, and the two were divorced on December 14, 1943.

Deanna and Felix Jackson

Unlike many husbands of movie stars, Deanna's second husband was famous in his own right. He was an acclaimed European playwright, who was considerably older than Deanna, and Deanna hoped that he would enable to have what we would now term "a normal life" away from the spotlight's glare. Deanna married her second husband Felix Jackson on June 13, 1945 (which was, incidentally, the nine year anniversary of her time at Universal). She was twenty-three, he was forty-three. The couple had one child, a daughter Jessica. However, it was not to last. They divorced on October 27, 1949. Deanna was bitterly disappointed, as she had increasingly hoped to have a normal family life.

Deanna and Charles David

After her first two marriages failed, Deanna married for a third and final time on December 21, 1950. Her husband was Charles Henri David, who had directed her in "Lady On A Train". They had been friends since the making of the picture. Deanna supposedly included a few strange conditions in the premarital contract; things such as (Charles David) protecting her from "spiders, mosquitoes and reporters." He also promised to give her what she desired above all else: "the life of a nobody". She retired to the French village of Neauphle-le-Chateau (near Paris) and had a son with Charles named Peter. She spent her retirement years journeying around the world with her husband, pursuing their shared loves of music, the arts and the theatre. For over forty-five years she has resisted all approaches from film companies and magazines. Charles once told journalists that, "the late Mario Lanza pleaded with her for years to make a film with him. But she will never go back to that life." Once, only once, has she been tempted to come out of retirement, and that was when My Fair Lady was being planned for Broadway.

Deanna's third, longest and happiest marriage came to an end when Charles David passed away in March 1999.