Respected NoHo Theater Actress Identified as Victim of Studio City Fire

Marion Wright, whose body was found in her burned-out home on Bluebell Avenue early Tuesday morning, is being remembered as a beloved neighbor and an active member of her church and a local repertory theater company, The Group Rep.

Maralee Knowlen, assistant clerk at the 36th Church of Christ on Whitsett Avenue, said that Wright's son, John "Butch" Wright of Calabasas, had been in touch with the church regarding his mother's death. No funeral arrangements have been finalized.

"She was a darling, lovely friend," said Knowlen.

Wright was found dead in her home at 4317 Bluebell Ave. after firefighters responded to a neighbor's 911 call, who reported the house fire at 3:03 a.m.  Tuesday. 

"She was a very good neighbor," said Vilma Lawson, a longtime friend and neighbor.  “[She] loved her garden, loved her cats, loved her children and her grandchildren." 

Los Angeles Fire Department investigators have not yet announced  the cause of the fire. Some of Wright’s neighbors wondered whether it could have started with a new wall heater they said she recently had installed.

"The police told me [Tuesday] morning that they think it’s a wall heater" that caused the blaze, said John Harrell, who has lived on Bluebell Avenue for 16 years.

Harrell, Lawson and other neighbors said they were awakened at about 3 a.m. by the noises and flashing lights of the fire trucks on the street.

"I asked a policeman what was going on and he said that there had been a fire,” Lawson recalled as she spoke to a Patch reporter Tuesday afternoon. “I asked if Mrs. Wright was all right and he said, 'No.’ He hesitated—he didn’t want to say anything—and then he said, ‘She’s gone, with her two little cats.’ "

Wright’s cats, Tommy and Samantha, "were brother and sister. They were her children. She’d open the door and yell “Tommy!” Lawson said, smiling at the memory.

Lawson had last spoken to her friend on Monday night between 7 and 9 p.m.

"She had offered me a tape of My Fair Lady," Lawson told Patch, "and I called to thank her."

They ended up talking about movies.

"She wanted to know where The King's Speech was playing, and I said, 'I don’t know, but I know you’re not going to the movies tonight,  so I’ll look it up and get back to you.' "

Neighbor Roger Clegg, who lives across the street, said Wright had many talents and interests.

"I know she volunteered for the Christian Science Church reading group,” Clegg said. “She was active in the theater. The sign on her door said she was a literary agent, but she was originally an actress—and she was still an actress."

Clegg said Wright was a member of The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in North Hollywood. Her picture appears on the page listing the company’s members.

According to IMDb.com, a Marion A. Wright appeared in episodes of the Adam-12 and Aspen TV series in the 1970s. Patch has not yet been able to confirm if it was the same person.

According to the Daily News, Marion A. Barnhill was born in Bisbee, AZ, on Feb. 15, 1920. Her family–including five brothers and sisters–moved to Glendale, CA, where she became a student at Hoover High School. She married John Jackson Wright in the 1940s.

"She was very active in the theater group,” Lawson said. “She made costumes for the different plays. She was very stylish. Oh, she dressed!"

"One time she brought over some brownies,” Lawson told Patch. “She’d bake for the performances for opening night, and she sold them for a dollar to raise money for the theater group."