Lori Martin: Movies & Filmography

Dawn Catherine Menzer, known professionally as Lori Martin, was an American film and television actress whose career spanned from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. Born on April 18, 1947, in Glendale, California, she entered the world at 10:02 a.m. as the first of fraternal twins, with her sister Doree arriving four minutes later. Weighing only 5 pounds and measuring 18 inches at birth, she spent her initial weeks in an incubator, with her survival in doubt. Her father, Russell C. Menzer, worked as a commercial artist and art director for MGM and Warner Brothers, which gave her early exposure to the entertainment industry. Lori Martin began her career at age six when her mother took her to an agent specializing in child actors, and she quickly landed her first job—a Chrysler commercial—which she famously attended alone after her mother's car broke down six blocks from the studio. She went on to appear in films such as Machine-Gun Kelly (1958), The FBI Story (1959), and Cash McCall (1959), as well as several television series including Medic, Wagon Train, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Leave It to Beaver. Her big break came at age 12 when she won the role of Velvet Brown in the NBC television adaptation of National Velvet (1960–1962), beating out 974 other hopefuls and being interviewed ten additional times after making the final three. The role required her to change her professional name from Dawn Menzer to Lori Martin. In 1962, she gained further acclaim for her role as Nancy Bowden in the thriller Cape Fear, starring alongside Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Martin later revealed that she delivered her best performance in the film but suffered from nightmares for weeks after filming the stalking scene with Mitchum. She also briefly pursued a singing career, releasing a single on Del-Fi Records in September 1963. After stepping away from acting in the early 1970s to care for her ailing mother and pursue a college education, Martin found the industry had changed too much for her to return. She married Charles Breitenbucher, had a son named Brett, and lived under her married name Dawn Breitenbucher, eventually settling in Oakhurst, California, where she passed away on April 4, 2010, at the age of 62.