Anna Lee

[DB7]

Spirited Hollywood actress

18 May 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/

Joan Boniface Winnifrith (Anna Lee), actress: born Ightham, Kent 2 January 1913; MBE 1982; married 1936 Robert Stevenson (died 1986; one daughter; marriage dissolved), 1945 George Stafford (two sons, one daughter; marriage dissolved), 1970 Robert Nathan (died 1985); died Los Angeles 14 May 2004.





Spirited, extremely pretty and a natural blonde, but far too refined and school-marmish for standard Hollywood stardom (the playwright Bertolt Brecht, with characteristic gallantry, dismissed her as "a smooth, characterless doll"), it would be rash to make any great claims on Anna Lee's behalf as an actress, but it was always a pleasure to see her and she could be very effective when well cast.



In Hollywood (after inventing an Irish grandfather to win his approval) she became one of the few female members of fellow Catholic John Ford's regular repertory company of actors, appearing in eight of his films between How Green Was My Valley (1941) and 7 Women (1966). The parts that he gave her seldom amounted to very much, however, and it perversely fell to two of Hollywood's most macho, off-beat talents to provide her with two of her best middle-aged roles.



In Sam Fuller's The Crimson Kimono (1959), she played Mac, the drunken, cigar-smoking Bohemian artist and earth-mother to the heroine (in whom her interest may be more than purely maternal), and in Robert Aldrich's What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), she was the breezy neighbour of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, who by her example allayed fears that women of her age inevitably disintegrated into Gorgons like those living next door. After shooting their first scene together, Davis barked, "It's good to be working with a pro."



Born Joan Boniface Winnifrith in Ightham, Kent, in 1913, daughter of the village rector, and god-daughter of Sybil Thorndike, her stage name was a composite of Anna Karenina and Robert E. Lee. She made her début on the London stage in 1932 and, a few minor film appearances later, was promoted to Jack Hulbert's leading lady - an intrepid young aviatrix - in The Camels are Coming (1934).



Her vigorous, try-anything personality also saw service as assistant to mad scientist Boris Karloff in The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936), Allan Quartermain's daughter in King Solomon's Mines (1937) and a human cannonball in Young Man's Fancy (1939), during the filming of which she was actually shot out of the cannon.



All three were directed by her then-husband Robert Stevenson, who directed most of her films at this time, and whom she accompanied to Hollywood in 1939. She was also the second lead, Jessie Matthews' platinum blonde rival, in First a Girl (1935), a part, alas, that was to prove more characteristic of what was to come her way after transferring to Tinseltown, although she started at the top, co- starring opposite Ronald Colman in My Life With Caroline (1941).



It was a dreary film, however, and after a few undistinguished female leads in quality productions like Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) and Hangmen Also Die (1943), she was rapidly relegated to supporting roles in "A" features such as Flesh and Fantasy (1943), Summer Storm (1944), The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947) and Fort Apache (1948), and leads in "B"s. Ironically, it was one of the latter that gave her her best part (and, after How Green Was My Valley, her own personal favourite) - that of Nell Rowen in Val Lewton's Bedlam (1946), a frivolous young actress whose wilfulness provokes her sugar daddy into having her placed in the care of a leering asylum director played by Boris Karloff.



She returned briefly to the stage in 1950 in a summer stock tour of Miranda and began increasingly to appear on television, including a three-year stint during the early Fifties as a panellist on It's News to Me.



At this point, however, her career was abruptly interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist. Although in her own words a "Winston Churchill Conservative", who saw nothing wrong with the blacklisting of actual Communists, she was confused with another actress and her name appeared in the notorious anti-Communist newsletter Red Channels. She was unable to get acting work for several years and was forced to make her living writing TV scripts under an assumed name.



In 1956 she finally wrote in desperation to Ford, who immediately got on the phone to Washington and cleared the situation up. "If it hadn't been for Ford, I probably wouldn't have been working now," she told the film historian Joseph McBride in 1987, but even so, she still had to add a rider to every contract she subsequently signed declaring that she was not now, and had never been, a Communist.



It was Ford who made her rehabitilition complete by giving Lee her first film role since 1952, as Mrs Jack Hawkins in Gideon's Day (1958, her only post-war British film), and later film roles included a stagecoach passenger held up by Lee Marvin in Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Balance (1962) and a nun with a twinkle in her eye in The Sound of Music (1965).



Her last substantial film role was in In Like Flint (1967) in which, to quote Variety's reviewer, "Anna Lee, ever a charming and gracious screen personality, is part of a triumvirate bent on seizing world power." (The trouser suit she wore throughout the film concealed the fact that she was black and blue from head to foot and had a broken wrist and 13 stitches in her thigh from a car accident four days before shooting had started).



Throughout the Eighties and Nineties she regularly featured, still as pretty as ever, in the soap opera General Hospital, only retiring from the show last year. A year after she had joined in 1978, taking the part of Lila Quatermaine, she was paralysed from the waist downwards in a car accident, and acted the role in a wheelchair.



She had a narrow escape just before Christmas 1994 when she was hauled to safety as her cottage off Sunset Strip caved in behind her during a fire which also destroyed most of her memorabilia and the only draft of her autobiography.



Richard Chatten

[Steve Crook]

Anna was also one of the chorus line of cleaning girls (you have to see it to believe it) in Michael Powell's quota-quicky His Lordship (1932)



Steve

[torinfan]

People here in the states remember her from General Hospital, but British born Anna Lee has appeared in a number of British films like "Chelsea Life" and "Mannequin" before moving to Hollywood with her husband to make more films.

[CaptainWaggett]

You can find out about her pre-war career in http://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Thames...dp/1844130940/ which has her last interview

[batman]

Darn it .... I was hoping this tread was going to be full of pics of Imogen Stubbs.

[penfold]

Imogen is very easy on the eye, but Anna was stone-dead gorgeous, particularly in her British films, pre-war.

[torinfan]

Imogen is very easy on the eye, but Anna was stone-dead gorgeous, particularly in her British films, pre-war.

She remained very beautiful, too, in her later years. She still worked long after she was in a car accident and could no longer walk.



That was the only photo I had of her in my collection. I finally figured out the mystery of Anna Lee in her role as Lady Constance in "Jack the Giant Killer" recently. Don't know why it took me so long, though.

[cornershop15]

There is a page on her here, which includes this lovely photograph:







Anna Lee Biography



I mostly remember her as one of the 7 Women (1966)



7 Women posters from MovieGoods.com

[TimR]

She is gorgeous.

[cornershop15]

[stuart.scot]

I wonder if John Ford ruined Anna Lee's career, or at least up to a point.



She was brilliant in How Green Was My Valley. I know she did a few starring roles in minor movies, but Ford put her in almost walk on parts. It's not as if she couldn't act, because Ford did give her a chance as Sarah Collingwood in Fort Apache and she was terrific, but what does Ford do. he puts her back into minor roles.



I haven't seen the film for a while, so I don't remember how big it was, but Ford needed an English actress to play Jack Hawkins wife in Gideon Of The Yard



She was also very attractive, even when older. She looked stunning IMO in another walk on role in The Prize.



It's been suggested, perhaps from even Anna herself that she would have been better of in the long term if she'd stayed in the UK and built up her career here, instead of getting reduced to walk on roles in Hollywood

[cornershop15]

Well said, Stuart. There is a long and unhappy list of British actors and actresses whose talent wasn't realised in Hollywood and on the Continent. To name but a few ...



Carol White, Rachel Roberts, Marty Feldman (all of whom at least attempted suicide), Pamela Franklin, Judy Geeson. Roger Moore, Belinda Lee, Patricia Cutts of course ...



Notable exceptions: Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr and (eventually!) Michael Caine.



I don't think Anna was put to good use in 7 Women, which was his last film I think.



EDIT - It was. That was a good guess!

[batman]

Carol White, Rachel Roberts, Marty Feldman (all of whom at least attempted suicide), Pamela Franklin, Judy Geeson. Roger Moore, Belinda Lee, Patricia Cutts of course ...



Notable exceptions: Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr and (eventually!) Michael Caine.

There is no evidence AFAIK that Marty Feldman ever attempted suicide, while Rachel Roberts' attempts were more to do with her alcoholism and disastrous relationship with Rex Harrison than her career.



Carol White's career hit the skids after she developed a drug and alcohol habit, which began before she went to Hollywood. Her death has never been confirmed as a suicide.



Re Roger Moore .... Rog was a huge success around the world with The Saint, including Europe and the US. In Europe Rog was one of the biggest stars around in the 60s and this continued for at least two decades.



Re Michael Caine .... eventually? Caine was Oscar nominated for Alfie in 1966, which was just two years after his breakthrough in Zulu. He has been a star in the US ever since.

[cornershop15]

I was talking about their time IN Hollywood. Roger Moore didn't set the world alight in Diane that's why he came back here! Ivanhoe, The Saint, etc. were made here in Britain, as was Alfie. Michael's early American films, when he made his home there in the Seventies I mean, were not distinguished - Harry and Walter Go to New York! The Swarm!! The Hand!!! It's only since his Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters that his career there has achieved credibility I think ... but not in the early stages.



I'm sure I read that Carol's first real despair was over her relationship with Paul Burke and, if you look at her career, you'll see that her British films gave her more to do as an actress than Something Big. I'm also sure that Marty Feldman attempted suicide in America, sometime between the aftermath of Silent Movie, which I liked, and his premature death. I believe he had his first experiences of failure in Hollywood. Rachel Roberts - What can I say? I don't know what she was doing there.

[CaptainWaggett]

I wonder if John Ford ruined Anna Lee's career, or at least up to a point.



She was brilliant in How Green Was My Valley. I know she did a few starring roles in minor movies, but Ford put her in almost walk on parts. It's not as if she couldn't act, because Ford did give her a chance as Sarah Collingwood in Fort Apache and she was terrific, but what does Ford do. he puts her back into minor roles.



I haven't seen the film for a while, so I don't remember how big it was, but Ford needed an English actress to play Jack Hawkins wife in Gideon Of The Yard



She was also very attractive, even when older. She looked stunning IMO in another walk on role in The Prize.



It's been suggested, perhaps from even Anna herself that she would have been better of in the long term if she'd stayed in the UK and built up her career here, instead of getting reduced to walk on roles in Hollywood

The book I mentioned has a long interview with her. She says that she just fell under the radar in Hollywood - she didn't stand out enough to get the roles that naturally went to US actresses. I can't remember whether there was some sort of scandal involving her second marriage - according to IMDB it was only 2 months after her divorce from Robert Stevenson. She did have 5 children which presumably meant she was unavailable for long periods.

[batman]

I was talking about their time IN Hollywood. Roger Moore didn't set the world alight in Diane that's why he came back here! Ivanhoe, The Saint, etc. were made here in Britain, as was Alfie. Michael's early American films, when he made his home there in the Seventies I mean, were not distinguished - Harry and Walter Go to New York! The Swarm!! The Hand!!! It's only since his Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters that his career there has achieved credibility I think ... but not in the early stages.



I'm sure I read that Carol's first real despair was over her relationship with Paul Burke and, if you look at her career, you'll see that her British films gave her more to do as an actress than Something Big. I'm also sure that Marty Feldman attempted suicide in America, sometime between the aftermath of Silent Movie, which I liked, and his premature death. I believe he had his first experiences of failure in Hollywood. Rachel Roberts - What can I say? I don't know what she was doing there.

True, Rog's film career wasn't great in the 50s, but he had success on TV. After Ivanhoe he returned to Hollywood to star in both The Alaskans and Maverick. It was his performances in these that won him the role of The Saint. So he didn't do too badly out of his stay in the US.



Caine chose to stay and make films in the UK, so it wasn't a case of Hollywood using him badly but of him making his own choices of when to work in the US. His early US films (and I mean in the 60s) included Preminger's Hurry Sundown and Gambit, both of which were successful. The later (70s and 80s) films included such hits as Dressed to Kill, The Silver Bears, California Suite and Deathtrap. Caine's career has always been hit or miss, both with his US and British films.



I have long been a fan of Marty and have read a lot about him, but have never read anything about suicide attempts. If you can recall where you read that I would be interested in the details.



Carol White's US venture was indeed a disaster .... she was unable to get work because of her personal problems. If she had been healthy and on top of her game she could have been a success IMHO.



Ditto Rachel Roberts, she was only in Hollywood because of her relationship with Sexy Rexy. IMHO she should never have gone but again, personal problems put paid to any chance of US success for her.



Hollywood can certainly chew 'em and spit 'em out, but sometimes the individual has to accept personal responsibility for their failures.

[cornershop15]

We're straying away from Anna, I fear, but just to put this to rest, I agree that both Carol White and Rachel Roberts would have prospered more if it weren't for their problems (as was the case for US stars such as Montgomery Clift and, again because of Rex Harrison apparently, Carole Landis), but I'm convinced that had Carol stayed HERE she would have been 'better looked after' in terms of being given quality work rather than stuff like Something Big and Some Call It Loving. Rachel continued to appear in good films and television, having checked her filmography, so I might have exaggerated about the decline in her career.



I still insist that Roger Moore failed in Hollywood and that it's Britain that made him a star, on TV at least. Juliet Mills did better in Nanny and the Professor than he did with his shows. It's unfortunate that his non-Bond films aren't better known, notably The Man Who Haunted Himself. And I thought Hurry Sundown was another of Michael Caine's failures? Apart from Gambit, a favourite of mine, and maybe one or two others, until Hannah and Her Sisters, nearly all his most noteable performances were in British films - Educating Rita stands out among the work he was doing at the time. Surely Stuart was onto something when he brought up Anna Lee's unfulfilled career in Hollywood?



Now that we're back on topic, JAMD and Rex Features have some nice photos of Anna, including one of Imogen Stubbs as another Anna Lee - which was another failure!

[Barbara]

For those of you who are interested in Anna Lee, I wrote her autobiography with her and it has been published by McFarland & Co. Publishers. Her last interviews were given for this book rather than the one noted about her home on Cardinal's Wharf. Should you wish to purchase a copy of the book, "Anna Lee: Memoir of a Life on General Hospital and on Film," please contact me for a discount.

[torinfan]

I wonder if John Ford ruined Anna Lee's career, or at least up to a point.



She was brilliant in How Green Was My Valley. I know she did a few starring roles in minor movies, but Ford put her in almost walk on parts. It's not as if she couldn't act, because Ford did give her a chance as Sarah Collingwood in Fort Apache and she was terrific, but what does Ford do. he puts her back into minor roles.



I haven't seen the film for a while, so I don't remember how big it was, but Ford needed an English actress to play Jack Hawkins wife in Gideon Of The Yard



She was also very attractive, even when older. She looked stunning IMO in another walk on role in The Prize.



It's been suggested, perhaps from even Anna herself that she would have been better of in the long term if she'd stayed in the UK and built up her career here, instead of getting reduced to walk on roles in Hollywood

That is an interesting view, Stuart, and one I can agree on. Even though Torin made over 50 films in the UK before coming to the USA, they were small roles, but one thing I have noticed about his rather unusual resume, is the quality, and the names of the people he has worked with, and for. To rattle off a few: George Formby, The Crazy Gang, Arthur Lucan, Alfred Hitchcock, H G Wells stories, Carol Reed, and so many more. It's that sort of thing that gives me a clue as to how his mind worked. :) Anyways, he was an exception here in Hollywood, and lucky enough to be close to a director who knew how to use him on the screen. Not many actors from across the pond have had that privilege.



I could easily go on but I am just happy he came here where he really thrived, not just in Hollywood, either.

[batman]

I still insist that Roger Moore failed in Hollywood and that it's Britain that made him a star, on TV at least.

We'll have to disagree. The Saint was made in Britain but it's US success (and US money) was what kept it going for so many years. Make the comparison with The Persuaders which was popular in Britain, but was not popular enough in the US, so it was cancelled, freeing Rog to become Bond, whereby his US popularity (and work opportunities) remained intact for many years. If that's failure, I'd like some of it!