snapper31
BAT Modern Beauties 1st Series Ann Dvorak No 16 1911-1979
Anna McKim was born in New York City to silent film actress Anna Lehr and actor/director Edwin McKim. She made her film début when she was five years old in the silent film version of "Ramona" (1916) and was credited "Baby Anna Lehr". She continued in children's roles in "The Man Hater" (1917) and "Five Dollar Plate" (1920).
Her parents separated in 1916 and divorced in 1920, and she didn't see her father again until 13 years later when she made a public plea to the press to help her find him.
She stopped working in films.
In the late 1920's she worked as a dance instructor and gradually began to appear on film as a chorus girl. Her friend Joan Crawford was the one who introduced her to Howard Hughes,who groomed her as a dramatic actress. He in turn was looking for a girl for his production of 'Scarface' (1932). She made $250 a week.,
She was a great success in such pre-Code films as 'Scarface' (1932) as Paul Muni's sister; in 'Three on a Match' (1932) with Joan Blondell and Bette Davis as the doomed, unstable Vivian, in 'Love Is a Racket' (1932) and in 'Sky Devils' (1932) opposite Spencer Tracy.
Known for her style and elegance, she was a popular leading lady for Warner Brothers during the 1930's, and appeared in numerous contemporary romances and melodramas.
She eloped in July 1932 with Leslie Fenton, her English co-star from The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932), and left for a year-long honeymoon without giving adequate notice to the studio and in spite of her contractual obligations. This led to a period of litigation and pay dispute during which she discovered she was making the same amount of money as the boy who played her son in Three on a Match. She completed her contract on permanent suspension and then worked as a freelancer, but although she worked regularly, the quality of her scripts declined sharply.
She appeared as secretary Della Street to Donald Woods' Perry Mason in 'The Case of the Stuttering Bishop' (1937). She also acted on Broadway. With her then-husband, Leslie Fenton, Dvorak travelled to England where she supported the war effort by working as an ambulance driver, and appeared in several British films. She appeared as a saloon singer in Abilene Town, released in 1946. Her marriage to Fenton ended in divorce in 1946. In 1947, she married her second husband, Igor Dega, a Russian dancer who danced with her briefly in The Bachelor's Daughters. It ended in divorce two years later.
She retired from the screen in 1951, when she married her third and last husband, Nicholas Wade, to whom she remained married until his death in 1975. She had no children.
In 1959, she and her husband moved to Hawaii, a place she had always loved, and she lived in near-anonymity until her death from stomach cancer in Honolulu at the age of 68. She had no survivors.
NOTE: Ann was uncredited in a great many of her silent movies, so I selected only a few and a selected few of her Sound Movies.
BAT Modern Beauties 1st Series Ann Dvorak No 16 1911-1979
Anna McKim was born in New York City to silent film actress Anna Lehr and actor/director Edwin McKim. She made her film début when she was five years old in the silent film version of "Ramona" (1916) and was credited "Baby Anna Lehr". She continued in children's roles in "The Man Hater" (1917) and "Five Dollar Plate" (1920).
Her parents separated in 1916 and divorced in 1920, and she didn't see her father again until 13 years later when she made a public plea to the press to help her find him.
She stopped working in films.
In the late 1920's she worked as a dance instructor and gradually began to appear on film as a chorus girl. Her friend Joan Crawford was the one who introduced her to Howard Hughes,who groomed her as a dramatic actress. He in turn was looking for a girl for his production of 'Scarface' (1932). She made $250 a week.,
She was a great success in such pre-Code films as 'Scarface' (1932) as Paul Muni's sister; in 'Three on a Match' (1932) with Joan Blondell and Bette Davis as the doomed, unstable Vivian, in 'Love Is a Racket' (1932) and in 'Sky Devils' (1932) opposite Spencer Tracy.
Known for her style and elegance, she was a popular leading lady for Warner Brothers during the 1930's, and appeared in numerous contemporary romances and melodramas.
She eloped in July 1932 with Leslie Fenton, her English co-star from The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932), and left for a year-long honeymoon without giving adequate notice to the studio and in spite of her contractual obligations. This led to a period of litigation and pay dispute during which she discovered she was making the same amount of money as the boy who played her son in Three on a Match. She completed her contract on permanent suspension and then worked as a freelancer, but although she worked regularly, the quality of her scripts declined sharply.
She appeared as secretary Della Street to Donald Woods' Perry Mason in 'The Case of the Stuttering Bishop' (1937). She also acted on Broadway. With her then-husband, Leslie Fenton, Dvorak travelled to England where she supported the war effort by working as an ambulance driver, and appeared in several British films. She appeared as a saloon singer in Abilene Town, released in 1946. Her marriage to Fenton ended in divorce in 1946. In 1947, she married her second husband, Igor Dega, a Russian dancer who danced with her briefly in The Bachelor's Daughters. It ended in divorce two years later.
She retired from the screen in 1951, when she married her third and last husband, Nicholas Wade, to whom she remained married until his death in 1975. She had no children.
In 1959, she and her husband moved to Hawaii, a place she had always loved, and she lived in near-anonymity until her death from stomach cancer in Honolulu at the age of 68. She had no survivors.
NOTE: Ann was uncredited in a great many of her silent movies, so I selected only a few and a selected few of her Sound Movies.