Barbra Fuller obit

Barbra Fuller, Star of Republic Pictures and ‘One Man’s Family’ on the Radio, Dies at 102

She also appeared on shows including ‘Adventures of Superman,’ ‘Four Star Playhouse,’ ‘My Three Sons’ and ‘Perry Mason.’ 

She was not on the list.

Barbra Fuller, who starred as the daughter Claudia on the long-running radio soap opera One Man’s Family, all while appearing in films for Republic Pictures and such TV shows as Adventures of Superman, has died. She was 102.

Fuller, who lived in the Los Angeles area, died Wednesday, her godson J.P. Sloane announced.

On the San Francisco-set One Man’s Family, created by Carlton E. Morse, Fuller played one of the Barbour family’s five kids from 1945 until the NBC Radio drama completed its 27-year run in 1959. Her character, a twin with kids of her own, was gone from the program for a couple of years before she came aboard.

“It was a fun part. Claudia was a good girl with interesting qualities,” she said in Michael G. Fitzgerald and Boyd Magers’ 2006 book, Ladies of the Western.

In 1949, Fuller signed with Republic and was under contract with the B-picture studio for a year, during which she was busy making 13 movies, starting with the anti-communism noir The Red Menace (1949).

She followed with such other films as Flame of Youth and Alias the Champ (featuring the wrestler Gorgeous George), both released in 1949, and The Savage Horde, Lonely Heart Bandits, Tarnished (also starring Jimmy Lydon), Women From Headquarters and Harbor of Missing Men, all those hitting theaters in 1950.

On the first-season Adventures of Superman episode “Crime Wave,” which premiered in February 1953, Fuller portrayed a woman working for “Public Enemy No. 1,” a mysterious criminal waging war against the good citizens of Metropolis.

Tasked with uncovering the Man of Steel’s friends at the Daily Planet, her character films Clark Kent running into an alleyway and then Superman running out seconds later, but somehow the crooks don’t put two and two together.

Barbara Deane Fuller was born in July 1921 in Nahant, Massachusetts. After her father died when she was 3, she and her mother lived in St. Petersburg, Florida, and then moved to Chicago.

Her mom worked at a radio station in the Windy City, and that got her a part opposite George Gobel on a kids program. Fuller followed with lots of roles in soap operas, but when she found herself falling for one of her leading men — he was married and his wife was pregnant — she quit in 1942 and moved to New York.

Three years later, she relocated to California and with a recommendation from future Oscar-winning actress Mercedes McCambridge landed the part of Claudia.

Somewhere along the way, Fuller tweaked how she spelled her first name. “I did the Barbra spelling as an attention-getter — before Streisand,” she noted.

She appeared alongside Robert Rockwell — perhaps best known for his turn as biology teacher Philip Boynton on the CBS comedy Our Miss Brooks — in six movies at Republic.

Her film résumé also included City of Bad Men (1953), starring Jeanne Crain and Dale Robertson, and The Roommates (1973).

Fuller starred alongside Charles Boyer on 1955-56 installments of the CBS anthology series Four Star Playhouse, and she appeared on a 1958 episode of the CBS series Trackdown that served as the pilot for another Western from Four Star Television, the Steve McQueen-starring Wanted: Dead or Alive.

She also showed up on installments of Ford Television Theater, State Trooper, The Millionaire, My Three Sons, U.S. Marshal, Perry Mason, Lassie and Daniel Boone.

Fuller acted in a number of soap operas. She played Claudia in One Man's Family, winner of the prestigious Peabody Award and arguably the first soap opera having begun in 1932 and running three decades. She did her first radio work in Chicago between the ages of 9 and 11. By age 18 she had appeared in 25 radio serials. Fuller was heard in Whispering Streets, The Guiding Light, Ma Perkins, Today's Children, Scattergood Baines, Madame Courageous, Road of Life, and Stepmother

Fuller married Lash LaRue, a star of low-budget Westerns, in February 1951 in Yuma, Arizona, but they were separated by November and divorced by the following June. She was one of his many wives.

Actress

The Roommates (1973)

The Roommates

5.3

Sylvia (as Barbara Fuller)

1973

 

Fess Parker in Daniel Boone (1964)

Daniel Boone

7.3

TV Series

Woman (as Barbara E. Fuller)

1970

1 episode

 

Jon Provost, Tommy Rettig, Lassie the Dog, and Lassie in Lassie (1954)

Lassie

6.5

TV Series

Fire Lookout

1965

1 episode

 

Raymond Burr in Perry Mason (1957)

Perry Mason

8.3

TV Series

Maid

Joan Leonard (as Barbara Fuller)

1960–1964

2 episodes

 

John Bromfield in U.S. Marshal (1958)

U.S. Marshal

7.5

TV Series

Meg O'Flynn (as Barbara Fuller)

1960

1 episode

 

My Three Sons (1960)

My Three Sons

7.1

TV Series

Mrs. Phelps

1960

1 episode

 

World of Giants (1959)

World of Giants

7.6

TV Series

(as Barbara Fuller, credit only)

1959

1 episode

 

Jack Benny in The Jack Benny Program (1950)

The Jack Benny Program

8.6

TV Series

Supporting Player (uncredited)

1958

1 episode

 

Colgate Theatre (1958)

Colgate Theatre

8.1

TV Series

Mrs. Phillips

1958

1 episode

 

Rod Cameron in State Trooper (1956)

State Trooper

7.8

TV Series

Lois Brinkman (as Barbara Fuller)

1958

1 episode

 

Robert Culp in Trackdown (1957)

Trackdown

7.9

TV Series

Mrs. Phillips (as Barbara Fuller)

1958

1 episode

 

The Ford Television Theatre (1952)

The Ford Television Theatre

7.5

TV Series

Sandra Mitchell (as Barbara Fuller)

1957

1 episode

 

Frank McHugh and Marvin Miller in The Millionaire (1955)

The Millionaire

7.8

TV Series

Milly Carter (as Barbara Fuller)

1956

1 episode

 

Four Star Playhouse (1952)

Four Star Playhouse

7.6

TV Series

Joan Webb

Jenny (as Barbara Fuller)

1955–1956

2 episodes

 

The Lineup (1954)

The Lineup

8.1

TV Series

1955

1 episode

 

Richard Boone in Medic (1954)

Medic

8.1

TV Series

Nurse (as Barbara Fuller)

1955

1 episode

 

Jeanne Crain, Richard Boone, and Dale Robertson in City of Bad Men (1953)

City of Bad Men

6.0

Mrs. Adler (uncredited)

1953

 

George Reeves in Adventures of Superman (1952)

Adventures of Superman

7.7

TV Series

Sally (as Barbara Fuller)

1953

1 episode

 

Kent Taylor in Boston Blackie (1951)

Front Page Detective

6.3

TV Series

Joyce Sinclair

Fran Bishop

1951

2 episodes

 

Dorothy Patrick and Robert Rockwell in Lonely Heart Bandits (1950)

Lonely Heart Bandits

6.2

Laurel Vernon

1950

 

Bobby Larson and Kent Taylor in Trial Without Jury (1950)

Trial Without Jury

6.2

Corinne Hollister

1950

 

Bill Elliott and Lorna Gray in The Savage Horde (1950)

The Savage Horde

6.6

Louise Cole

1950

 

Women from Headquarters (1950)

Women from Headquarters

5.4

Ruby Cain

1950

 

Forrest Tucker in Rock Island Trail (1950)

Rock Island Trail

6.2

Annabelle Marsh

1950

 

Richard Denning, Barbra Fuller, and Steven Geray in Harbor of Missing Men (1950)

Harbor of Missing Men

6.4

Mae Leggett

Miss Higgins

1950

 

Arthur Franz and Dorothy Patrick in Tarnished (1950)

Tarnished

6.2

Nina

1950

 

Ward Bond, Walter Brennan, Vaughn Monroe, and Ella Raines in Singing Guns (1950)

Singing Guns

6.3

Girl (uncredited)

1950

 

Unmasked (1950)

Unmasked

6.2

Linda Jackson

1950

 

Barbra Fuller, Gorgeous George, and Robert Rockwell in Alias the Champ (1949)

Alias the Champ

5.9

Colette LaRue

1949

 

Tony Barrett, Barbra Fuller, Ray McDonald, and Danni Sue Nolan in Flame of Youth (1949)

Flame of Youth

6.6

Lila Coletti

1949

 

The Red Menace (1949)

The Red Menace

5.0

Mollie O'Flaherty

194