Basic Information
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Loretta Barnett Combs |
| Other names / variants | Loretta Grace Barnett, Loretta Agar |
| Born | September 7, 1922 |
| Died | January 27, 2000 (aged 77) |
| Occupation | Model; occasional dancer / minor on-screen performer (uncredited roles reported) |
| Spouse | John Agar (married May 1951 — marriage lasted until her death in 2000) |
| Children | Martin Agar; John G. Agar III (listed as her son) |
| Step-children | Linda Susan Agar (daughter of John Agar from his earlier marriage) |
A backstage entrance: why I find Loretta worth writing about
I’ve always loved the small, sideways stories of Hollywood — the people who shimmer in press photos and then step back into domestic frames. Loretta Barnett Combs is one of those figures: not a marquee name, but present at the margins of the movies, married to a recognizable leading man, and carrying a family life that stretched across decades. Her life reads like an acetate still — glossy for a moment (the wedding notices, the press photos), then tucked away into drawers where children grow up and time keeps turning.
Dates, facts, and the arithmetic of a life
- Born September 7, 1922, Loretta came of age in the 1930s and 40s — an era of studio glamour, big band radio, and dance halls.
- She married actor John Agar in May 1951 when she was 28 years old. That union endured for nearly half a century; she died January 27, 2000 at age 77. John Agar passed a few years after her in the early 2000s.
- Two sons are associated with Loretta: Martin Agar and John G. Agar III, the latter explicitly identified as her child. Her role as stepmother to Linda Susan Agar (John’s daughter from an earlier marriage) places her in a blended family that reads like a mid-century Hollywood household.
The numbers are modest, but they map a steady arc: birth in 1922; marriage in 1951; decades of private life before her death in 2000 — a life lived mostly out of the gossip columns’ spotlight, yet in the orbit of film history.
The marriage that tied a private life to a public stage
John Agar — known to moviegoers as a co-star with big names of his era — brings the public angle to Loretta’s otherwise quiet biography. They married in May 1951, a wedding that drew press photographers and captions announcing the union. From those photos, Loretta is described in contemporary captions as a model and a charming presence at the ceremony — part of that postwar Hollywood ritual where actresses, models, and soldiers exchanged vows under flashbulbs.
What I love about this pairing is the contrast: Agar, a name on posters, and Loretta, someone who appears in the press as an attractive, cultured private person — the kind of spouse who anchors a household while the actor hops from set to set. Their marriage survived the storms of show business long enough to span nearly five decades, which in Hollywood terms is practically mythic.
Career notes — small credits, a visible presence
Loretta’s public career is spare and understated. Contemporary listings and press mentions identify her primarily as a model, sometimes described as a dancer or uncredited film presence in the era when plenty of working performers earned their stripes in background roles. She cropped up in press photo captions around the time of her wedding — a common fate for models who married public figures — and beyond that, the record is quiet. No major lead roles, no glittering filmography; instead, the impression is of a woman who existed both in the visual vocabulary of mid-century celebrity and in the practical life of wife and mother.
The family table — introductions
| Name | Relationship to Loretta | Quick intro |
|---|---|---|
| John Agar | Husband (m. May 1951) | A working film and TV actor whose career intersected with classic Hollywood names; Loretta was his second long-term spouse. |
| Martin Agar | Son | One of Loretta’s two sons; public records list him as a child of Loretta and John Agar. |
| John G. Agar III | Son | Explicitly identified as Loretta’s child; the user-provided materials name him as her son. |
| Linda Susan Agar | Step-daughter | John Agar’s daughter from his earlier marriage; not Loretta’s biological child but part of the blended family dynamic. |
That table reads like a small household cast list — husband, two sons, a stepdaughter — and behind each name is a private life I can only hint at: school recitals, birthday cakes, flashbulb weddings, the daily negotiations of a family caught between ordinary routines and the intermittent intensity of public life.
Press photographs and the archival trace
If you go looking for Loretta in the archive, you’ll find what I imagine: a handful of press photos from 1951, wedding captions, and fan pages that collect the same small corpus of details — names, dates, the image of a bride next to an actor. Those images are the cinematic residue she leaves: permanent on glossy paper, ephemeral in life. They’re proof she existed at a particular moment in Hollywood’s history, and they’re the peg that keeps her memory discoverable for the curious.
What she didn’t leave behind (and why that matters to me)
There’s no sprawling autobiography, no headline-making scandal, and no headline net-worth estimate attached to Loretta’s name in the public record. To me, that absence is not a failure; it’s a portrait in negative. It tells the story of a life lived mostly offstage: a marriage that lasted, children who bore her name, and a career that touched the industry in small, uncredited ways. Those are the kinds of lives that build communities and raise families — lives that matter in their quiet constancy even if they don’t fill magazine covers.
FAQ
Who was Loretta Barnett Combs?
Loretta Barnett Combs was a model and occasional on-screen performer born September 7, 1922, best known publicly as the long-time wife of actor John Agar.
When did Loretta marry John Agar?
She married John Agar in May 1951, at about 28 years old, and they remained married until her death in 2000.
Who are Loretta’s children?
Loretta is listed as the mother of two sons, Martin Agar and John G. Agar III, and she was stepmother to Linda Susan Agar.
Did Loretta have a film career?
Her screen presence was minimal and mostly uncredited; she is better documented as a model and as a figure in press photographs around her wedding.
When did Loretta die and how old was she?
Loretta died on January 27, 2000, at the age of 77.
Is there public information about her net worth?
No, there are no reliable public estimates or verified figures for Loretta Barnett Combs’s net worth.
