From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv
Ann Blyth, Who Played Joan Crawford's Daughter
in 'Mildred Pierce,' Dies at 98
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Ann Blyth, who drew a 1946 Oscar nomination for her memorable
performance as the spoiled, selfish daughter of Joan Crawford's
hard-working, devoted title character in the classic film
"Mildred Pierce," died Wednesday. She was 98.
KABC's George Pennachio reported her death.
The dark beauty was alsoanoted for her roles inaprison drama
"Brute Force" (1947), Mario Lanza vehicle "The Great Caruso"
(1951) and 1957's "The Helen Morgan Story" with Paul Newman.
In an interstitial recorded many decades later for Turner
Classic Movies, Blyth recalled shooting "Mildred Pierce" with
Crawford and declared that despite their characters' fraught
relationship on screen, she and Crawford got along very well,
and it was hard for her to slap Crawfordafor one of the movie's
pivotal scenes.
Crawford won the best actress Oscar for "Mildred Pierce," which
was also nominated for best picture, among other categories.
"Mildred Pierce," based on the James M. Cain novel, was remade
by Todd Haynes as an HBO miniseries in 2011 that starred Kate
Winslet, withaEvan Rachel Wood playing the ungrateful daughter
Veda.
While briefly on vacation from filming "Danger Signal," in 1945,
Blyth broke her back in a sledding accident, and she spent a
year and a half convalescing in a back brace, after which
Universal used her in the excellent prison drama "Brute Force,"
starring Burt Lancaster, while she was still confined to a
wheelchair. After she recovered, Universal gave Blyth her first
starring role in "Swell Guy." She also starred opposite Mickey
Rooney in the film noir "Killer McCoy."
The actress had an interesting and challenging role in 1948's
"Another Part of the Forest," a prequel to Lillian Hellman's
"The Little Foxes" in which she played a younger version of the
Regina Hubard character immortalized on film by Bette Davis.
In 1950 melodrama "Our Very Own," she played an adopted child
searching for her birth mother, and Blyth played a woman wrongly
convicted of murder in "Thunder on the Hill." She was wife to
Mario Lanza's Enrico Caruso in 1951's "The Great Caruso," and
she also appeared in lighter fare such as "Mr. Peabody and the
Mermaid" and "Katie Did It." In 1952 she starred opposite
Gregory Peck in "The World in His Arms," her last film for
Universal.
At MGM she appeared in a series of operettas, including "Kismet,"
but the era of the grand film musicals was ending, and she was
not the only star whose career suffered as a result.
Going out on a high note, she played the tragic title character
in 1957's "The Helen Morgan Story," about an alcoholic torch
singer; strangely, her singing voice was dubbed.
Ann Marie Blyth was born inaMount Kisco, New York. She was young
when her parents split, and her mother moved Blyth and her sister
to New York City.
For a time aiming for an operaacareer, Blyth trained withathe
San Carlo Opera Company.
She made her single Broadway appearance in the original
production of Lillian Hellman's WWII drama "Watch on the Rhine"
in 1941-42. She toured with the show in Los Angeles, where she
was noticed and given a screen test at Universal.
The young actress made her big screen debut in 1944's swing-era
teen musical "Chip Off the Block," a B musical starring Donald
O'Connor in which she got to show off her pipes. Roles in similar
fare followed:aa"The Merry Monahans" and "Babes on Swing Street,"
also 1944 films. But she didn't really get noticed until her role
in Warner Bros.' "Mildred Pierce" in 1945.
The devout Catholic focused on family after her film career
essentially ended in 1957 as well as musical theater, appearing in
"The Sound of Music," "The King and I," "Carnival," "Bittersweet,"
"South Pacific," "Show Boat" and "A Little Night Music."
Blyth had started making occasional appearances on television in
the 1950s, appearing, for example, in a "Lux Video Theatre"
adaptation of "A Place in the Sun" in 1954, on "The DuPont Show
With June Allyson" in 1959 and "The Dick Powell Theatre" in 1962.
She made several appearances on the TV Western "Wagon Train" in
the early 1960s and starred in the "Queen of the Nile" episode of
"Twilight Zone" in 1964. Later she appeared a couple of times on
"Quincy, M.E." before her final television appearance on "Murder,
She Wrote" in 1985.
The actress was married to Dr.aJames McNulty froma1953 until his
death ina2007. They had five children, 10 grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren.
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https://variety.com/2026/film/news/ann-blyth-dead-mildred-pierce-1236790987/>
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