Ann Sheridan
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Ann Sheridan | |
---|---|
Born | Clara Lou Sheridan February 21, 1915 Denton, Texas, U.S. |
Died | January 21, 1967 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 51)
Cause of death
| esophageal and liver cancer |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1934–1967 |
Spouse(s) | Edward Norris (m. 1936–1939; divorced) George Brent (m. 1942–1943; divorced) Scott McKay (m. 1966–1967; her death) |
Life and career
Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a Paramount film. She abandoned college to pursue a career in Hollywood.She made her film debut in 1934, aged 19, in the film Search for Beauty, and played uncredited bit parts in Paramount films for the next two years. Paramount made little effort to develop Sheridan's talent, so she left, signing a contract with Warner Bros. in 1936, and changing her name to Ann Sheridan.
Sheridan's career prospects began to improve. She received as many as 250 marriage proposals from fans in a single week.[1] Tagged The Oomph Girl — a sobriquet which she reportedly loathed[2][3][4] — Sheridan was a popular pin-up girl in the early 1940s.
She was the heroine of a novel, Ann Sheridan and the Sign of the Sphinx, written by Kathryn Heisenfelt, published by Whitman Publishing Company in 1943. While the heroine of the story was identified as a famous actress, the stories were entirely fictitious. The story was probably written for a young teenage audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that always featured a film actress as heroine.[5]
She received substantial roles and positive reaction from critics and moviegoers in such films as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), opposite James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, Dodge City (1939) with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Torrid Zone with Cagney and They Drive by Night with George Raft and Bogart (both 1940), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, and Kings Row (1942), in which she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Betty Field.
She also appeared in such musicals as It All Came True (1940) and Navy Blues (1941). She was also memorable in two of her biggest hits, Nora Prentiss and The Unfaithful, both in 1947.
Despite these successes, her career began to decline. Her role in I Was a Male War Bride (1949), directed by Howard Hawks and costarring Cary Grant, gave her another success, but by the 1950s she was struggling to find work and her film roles were sporadic. In 1950, she appeared on the ABC musical television series Stop the Music. In 1962, she played the lead in "The Mavis Grant Story" on the Western series Wagon Train. In the middle 1960s, Sheridan appeared on the NBC soap opera Another World.
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Ann Sheridan has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 7024 Hollywood Boulevard.
Marriages
Sheridan married three times, including a marriage lasting one year to fellow Warner Brothers star George Brent, who co-starred with her in Honeymoon for Three (1941).Death
In 1966, Sheridan began starring in a new TV series, a Western themed comedy called Pistols 'n' Petticoats. She became ill during the filming, and died of esophageal and liver cancer at age 51 on January 21, 1967, in Los Angeles, California, one month before her 52nd birthday. She was cremated, and her ashes were stored at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles until her remains were interred in a niche in the Chapel Columbarium at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2005.[6]Filmography
References
- Jump up ^ "Everybody Wants to Marry Annie," AP, May 25, 1941. Accessed June 2, 2009.[1]
- Jump up ^ Ann Sheridan, Actress, Born Clara Lou Sheridan on Feb. 21, 1915 in Denton, TX, Died Jan. 21, 1967 of cancer in Los Angeles, CA, by Paul Houston, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1967
- Jump up ^ When a Woman Could Be an Oomph Girl by Art Rogoff, New York Times, September 12, 1988
- Jump up ^ "The Oomph Girl", Classic Cinema Gold, February 21, 2012
- Jump up ^ Whitman Authorized Editions for Girls
- Jump up ^ http://classicfilm.about.com/od/classicfilmactresses/a/annshrdan20705.htm
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ann Sheridan. |
- Ann Sheridan at the Internet Movie Database
- Ann Sheridan at the TCM Movie Database
- Ann Sheridan at AllMovie
- Interview with Ann Sheridan biographer
- Photographs and literature
* * *
Ann Sheridan was famous as the "Oomph" girl, a title that can be seen as somewhat similar to Clara Bow's title of the "It" girl.
After Sheridan and Humphrey Bogart co-starred in "San Quentin" (1937) directed by Lloyd Bacon, in which their characters were siblings, they became friends and began referring to each other as Sister Annie and Brother Bogie.
ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES ( 1938 ) with Jimmy Cagney.
THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT ( 1940 ) with George Raft.
Martha Raye, Ruby Keeler, Jane Wyman and Ann Sheridan at a wedding shower for Martha on the set of NAVY BLUES.
Ann Sheridan and Carole Landis were friends.
With Carole Landis at the Stork Club.
With Jimmy Durante in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER ( 1942 ).
Signing autographs for the soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen, 1943.
Ann Sheridan is one of a number of movie stars caricatured in the 1941 Warner Brothers cartoon HOLLYWOOD STEPS OUT.
With Edward G. Robinson.
An Ann Sheridan character appeared in a Superman story which was also a sort of Li'l Abner story, "A Goof Named Tiny Rufe".
This story appeared in ACTION COMICS #55, which was originally published in December 1942.
In the Doc Savage adventure THE HEADLESS MEN, Doc's sidekick Monk calls a redhead named Lynda Ladore "The Oomph Girl of the movies". That would make her Ann Sheridan, who was termed "The Oomph Girl" at the time. THE HEADLESS MEN was originally published in DOC SAVAGE magazine in June 1941.
Vaugely connected to the Ann Sheridan "Oomph" business was a character named "Oomphie" played by Marion Martin in the 1941 movie HARVARD HERE I COME, which starred Maxie Rosenbloom. Also in the cast was Marie Wilson, who was sometimes seen in Warner Brothers publicity pictures with Ann Sheridan, such as the one at the top of this page..
"A Goof Named Tiny Rufe":
http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2013/02/superman-meets-lil-abner.html
HARVARD, HERE I COME:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034831/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_27
THE HEADLESS MEN:
http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2014/05/doc-savage-meets-oomph-girl-of-movies.html
HOLLYWOOD STEPS OUT:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/03/hollywood-steps-out.html
Ann Sheridan:
http://trainbellies.blogspot.com/2011/12/ann-sheridan-warner-boys-humphrey.html
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