Maxine Reiner (March 16, 1916 – June 19, 2003) was an American actress. She was more noted for off-screen marital troubles than for her film performances.

Early life

Maxine Frances Reiner was from

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, the daughter of Bernard Reiner and Ida Eisenberg Reiner. Her family was Jewish. Her father owned a chain of women's specialty shops, and his father was a jeweler. She attended a school of elocution and dramatic art in Philadelphia, and acted in plays there.

Career

Reiner modeled for advertisements and in swimsuits as a young woman. She moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister after high school, to seek a career in the film business. She was soon under contract with Paramount Pictures, and later with

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

. Her first film was '' Wanderer of the Wasteland'' (1935). She also had screen credits in ''

Charlie Chan at the Circus ''Charlie Chan at the Circus'' is the 11th film produced by Fox starring Warner Oland as Charlie Chan. A seemingly harmless family outing drags a vacationing Chan into a murder investigation. The film's sets were designed by the art director Du ...

'' (1936), ''

Sins of Man ''Sins of Man'' is a 1936 American drama film, directed by Otto Brower and released by 20th Century Fox. It stars Jean Hersholt, Don Ameche, and Allen Jenkins. Plot Cast *Jean Hersholt as Christopher Freyman *Don Ameche as Karl Freyman / Mario ...

'' (1936), and ''

The Girl on the Front Page ''The Girl on the Front Page'' is a 1936 American comedy crime film directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Edmund Lowe, Gloria Stuart and Reginald Owen.Gates p.106-7 It was produced and distributed by Hollywood major Universal Pictures. Synop ...

'' (1936), and smaller uncredited roles in ''

It Had to Happen ''It Had to Happen'' is a 1936 American drama film starring George Raft and Rosalind Russell. The movie was written by Kathryn Scola, and Howard Ellis Smith, and directed by Roy Del Ruth. It is based on the 1909 short story "Canavan, the Man Wh ...

'' (1936) and ''

Flying Hostess ''Flying Hostess'' is a 1936 American drama film directed by Murray Roth and starring William Gargan, Judith Barrett and William Hall.Paris p.75 A group of stewardesses undergo their training, and later thwart the hijacking of an airplane. Part ...

'' (1936).

Personal life

Reiner married a friend of her parents', businessman Joseph I. Myerson, in 1935; they divorced in 1936, in a contested trial that made headlines. "She said she earned more money than I did and didn't need me," Myerson told the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. Her second husband was film producer Harry Eliot Sokolov. They married in 1937, had a son, Thomas, born in 1943, and lived in Beverly Hills with her mother and younger sister; they divorced in 1950. She was linked in gossip columns with author Max Rubinstein in 1951. Her third husband was Frank M. Grossman; they were married briefly in the 1950s. Reiner died in Los Angeles in 2003, aged 87 years. Her son, Thomas R. Sokolov, is a judge on the

Superior Court of Los Angeles County The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The L ...

. Her younger sister was cookbook author Naomi Shuwarger.

References

External links

*
A Maxine Reiner cigarette card
in the New York Public Library Digital Collections
"Dixie Dunbar, Maxine Reiner, and Helen Wood get their contracts with Twentieth Century Fox approved"
(1935), a photograph in UCLA Library Special Collections 1916 births 2003 deaths People from Philadelphia American actresses {{Portal, Pennsylvania, Film