Jean Burt Reilly

Biography

Jean Elizabeth Burt usually credited as Jean Burt Reilly was an American hair stylist whose career in Hollywood spanned nearly four decades.

Born in Vananda, Montana, and educated at San Diego High School, Burt began her career as a radio performer in the early 1930s. She later toured with the Marx Brothers performing scenes from A Night at the Opera (1935) and appeared uncredited in the film as the manicurist in the famous stateroom scene. She also appeared as a telephone operator in A Day at the Races (1937). A few months before the latter film's release, she passed the California State Board of Cosmetology examination in permanent waving. She subsequently worked for Max Factor as an advisory expert on makeup before becoming a Hollywood hair stylist.

Her first film as a hair stylist was Casablanca (1942), beginning a 39-year screen career. By the mid-1950s, Reilly had become head of hair styling at Warner Bros., frequently working in a supervisory capacity. Her credits included The Music Man, Days of Wine and Roses, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Ensign Pulver, My Fair Lady, The Great Race, Camelot, Cool Hand Luke, Rocky II, Ordinary People and Raging Bull. Her final film was True Confessions (1981).

Reilly also worked extensively in television, including The Alaskans, *77 Sunset Strip, No Time for Sergeants, Mister Roberts and F Troop. She and Billie Laughridge won an Emmy for Eleanor and Franklin in 1976, and Reilly received another nomination for Ike: The War Years in 1979. In 1967, she also helped create a new look for Petula Clark.

Her work on Raging Bull received an unusually prominent tribute when Robert De Niro thanked her during his Academy Award acceptance speech after winning Best Actor for the film.

Decades after A Night at the Opera, Burt's tiny uncredited appearance became the subject of a running fascination on The Marx Brothers Council Podcast. Co-host Bob Gassel in particular had repeatedly spoken about trying to discover the identity of the mysterious manicurist. Her identity was eventually uncovered by Robert “Bob” Stryker, who uploaded a clear screengrab of her to Ancestry.com. Stryker had used the same method to identify to try and identify her around half a dozen times over the years but never got a result. The discovery produced an unexpected result: rather than being simply an otherwise unknown featured extra, the manicurist turned out to be a woman who went on to have a substantial career of her own behind the scenes in Hollywood.

Reilly married Max Factor chemist Glenn B. Weible in 1940. Following his death in 1943, she married film editor Thomas Reilly in 1949. On June 24, 1962, she was recognised for 25 years of service by Hollywood Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Local 706.

She died in Los Angeles on February 15, 1981, aged 65.