Anne Shirley (actress)

{{Infobox person

| name = Anne Shirley

| image = Studio publicity Anne Shirley.jpg

| caption = Shirley in the 1940s

| birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1918|4|17}}

| birth_place = New York City, NY, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1993|7|4|1918|4|17}}

| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| birth_name = Dawn Evelyn Paris

| known_for = {{hlist|Anne of Green Gables|Steamboat Round the Bend|Stella Dallas|Murder, My Sweet|Anne of Windy Poplars}}

| othername = Dawn O'Day

| occupation = Actress

| awards = Hollywood Walk of Fame

| years_active = 1922–1944

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|John Payne
|1937|1943|end=div}}
{{marriage|Adrian Scott
|1945|1948|end=div}}
{{marriage|Charles Lederer
|1949|1976|end=d.}}

}}

| children = 2, including Julie Payne

}}

Anne Shirley (born Dawn Evelyn Paris; April 17, 1918 – July 4, 1993) was an American actress.

Beginning her career as a child actress under the stage name Dawn O'Day, she adopted the stage name of Anne Shirley after playing the titular character in the film adaptation of Anne of Green Gables in 1934,{{cite news| title=Anne Shirley At Weller| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5882092/the_times_recorder/| newspaper=The Times Recorder| date=July 7, 1940| location=Zanesville, Ohio| page=16| via=Newspapers.com| access-date=July 13, 2016}}{{Open access}}{{dead link|date=August 2020}} after which she achieved a successful career in supporting roles. Among her films is Stella Dallas (1937), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress[https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1938 1938 Academy Awards].

Shirley left the acting profession in 1944 at the age of 26 and remained in Los Angeles, where she died at the age of 75.{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-anne-shirley-1483611.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-anne-shirley-1483611.html |archive-date=2022-05-07 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live| last=Shipman| first=David| title=Obituary: Anne Shirley| newspaper=The Independent| location=London| date=October 22, 2011| access-date=November 1, 2015}}{{cbignore}}

Early life

Born in New York City as Dawn Evelyn Paris, Shirley began modeling as a baby and made her film debut with a featured role in Moonshine Valley (1922).{{cite news| newspaper=Modern Screen| title=Information Desk| date=July 1935| page=10| url=https://archive.org/stream/modernscreen9101unse#page/n735/mode/2up/search/%22Chasing+Yesterday%22| volume=11| issue=2| access-date=November 1, 2015}}{{Open access}} She began acting at the age of five as the live-action Alice in Walt Disney's silent animated series Alice in Cartoonland. Shirley had a highly successful career in pre-Code films such as Liliom, Riders of the Purple Sage, So Big, Three on a Match and Rasputin and the Empress.

Career

File:Anne Shirley and John Beal in M'Liss, 1936.jpg and Anne Shirley in 1936.]]

In 1934, Shirley starred as the character of Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables and took that character's name as her legal and stage name.{{Cite news|url=http://memoria.bn.br/DocReader/DocReader.aspx?bib=103730_06&pesq=%22Anne%20Shirley,%20livro%22&pasta=ano%20193&hf=memoria.bn.br&pagfis=5380|title=Venus em Flor|language=pt-br|page=9|journal=Gazeta de Noticias|place=Rio de Janeiro|date=1935-07-04|volume=60|issue=156}}

She starred in Steamboat Round the Bend, Make Way for a Lady and Stella Dallas, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her later roles came in films such as Vigil in the Night, Anne of Windy Poplars, The Devil and Daniel Webster and Murder, My Sweet, her final film.

Critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Shirley's performance in Saturday's Children (1940), writing that she played her role "with heroic integrity and strength of character."{{Cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |date=1940-05-04 |title=The Screen; John Garfield and Anne Shirley Seen at Strand in 'Saturday's Children'—Star Dust' at Roxy |work=The New York Times |page=13}}

Personal life

Shirley married actor John Payne on August 22, 1937, in Montecito, California.{{cite news| title=Anne Marries| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5881922/newsjournal/| newspaper=Mansfield News Journal| agency=United Press| date=August 23, 1937| page=10| via=Newspapers.com| access-date=July 13, 2016}} {{Open access}}{{dead link|date=August 2020}} They had a daughter, former actress Julie Payne, and divorced in 1943.{{cite news| title=Anne Shirley| url=https://variety.com/1993/scene/people-news/anne-shirley-108536/| agency=Associated Press| date=July 8, 1993| newspaper=Variety| access-date=August 26, 2020}}

Her second husband was film producer and screenwriter Adrian Scott. When he was blacklisted and wanted to move the family to Europe, Shirley opted to remain in the U.S. The couple divorced in 1949.{{cite book| title=The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate| first=Norma| last=Barzman| date=August 18, 2004| publisher=Public Affairs| isbn=978-1560256175}}

Her third husband was Charles Lederer, nephew of Marion Davies. They had one son, Daniel Lederer.

Shirley had brief relationships with younger Western star Rory Calhoun and with French film star Jean-Pierre Aumont.

Shirley died from lung cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 75 on July 4, 1993, and was cremated. For her contributions to the motion-picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7020 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

File:Alice's Egg Plant (1925).png, in a scene from Alice's Egg Plant (1925)]]

File:AnneShirleyMurderMySweetTrailerScreenshot1955.jpg (1944)]]

class="wikitable sortable" ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" \| Notes
rowspan="2" \| 1922	The Hidden Woman	Girl	as Dawn O'Day Lost film
Moonshine Valley	Nancy	as Dawn O'Day Lost film
rowspan="2" \| 1923	The Rustle of Silk	Girl	as Dawn O'Day Lost film
The Spanish Dancer	Don Balthazar Carlos	as Dawn O'Day
rowspan="2" \| 1924	The Man Who Fights Alone	Dorothy	as Dawn O'Day Lost film
The Fast Set	Little Margaret	as Dawn O'Day Lost film
rowspan="2" \| 1925	Riders of the Purple Sage	Fay Larkin	uncredited
Alice's Egg Plant	Alice	Short subject as Dawn O'Day
rowspan="2" \| 1927	The Callahans and the Murphys	Mary Callahan	as Dawn O'Day Lost film
Night Life	Daughter of War Profiteer	as Dawn O'Day
rowspan="3" \| 1928	Mother Knows Best	Sally, as a child	as Dawn O'Day Lost film
4 Devils	Marion, as a girl	as Dawn O'Day Lost film
Sins of the Fathers	Mary, as a child	as Dawn O'Day
rowspan="2" \| 1930	City Girl	Marie Tustine	as Dawn O'Day
Liliom	Louise	as Dawn O'Day
rowspan="4" \| 1931	Gun Smoke	Horton's Daughter	as Dawn O'Day
Hello Napoleon	The Little Girl	short, as Dawn O'Day
Howdy Mate	-	short, as Dawn O'Day
Rich Man's Folly	Anne, as a child	as Dawn O'Day
rowspan="6" \| 1932	Emma	Isabelle as a Child	uncredited
Young America	Mabel Saunders	as Dawn O'Day
So Big!	Selina Peake, as a Child	uncredited
The Purchase Price	Sarah Tipton, the Daughter	uncredited
Three on a Match	Vivian Revere as a Child	as Dawn O'Day
Rasputin and the Empress	Princess Anastasia	uncredited
1933	The Life of Jimmy Dolan	Mary Lou	uncredited
rowspan="8" \| 1934	This Side of Heaven	Flower Girl	scenes deleted, as Dawn O'Day
School for Girls	Catherine Fogarty
Finishing School	Billie	as Dawn O'Day
The Key	Flower Girl	as Dawn O'Day
Bachelor Bait	Miriam Ann Johnson, Marriage License Applicant	uncredited
Anne of Green Gables	Anne Shirley
Picture Palace	Dawn	short, as Dawn O'Day
Private Lessons	Dawn	short, as Dawn O'Day
rowspan="2" \| 1935	Chasing Yesterday	Jeanne Alexandre
Steamboat Round the Bend	Fleety Belle
rowspan="3" \| 1936	Chatterbox	Jenny Yates
M'Liss	M'liss Smith
Make Way for a Lady	June Drew
rowspan="3" \| 1937	Too Many Wives	Betty Jackson
Meet the Missus	Louise Foster
Stella Dallas	Laurel "Lollie" Dallas	\|nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
rowspan="5" \| 1938	Condemned Women	Millie Anson
Law of the Underworld	Annabelle Porter
Mother Carey's Chickens	Nancy Carey
Girls' School	Natalie Freeman
A Man to Remember	Jean Johnson
rowspan="3" \| 1939	Boy Slaves	Annie
Sorority House	Alice Fisher
Career	Sylvia Bartholomew
rowspan="3" \| 1940	Vigil in the Night	Lucy Lee
Saturday's Children	Bobby Halevy
Anne of Windy Poplars	Anne Shirley
rowspan="3" \| 1941	West Point Widow	Nancy Hull
Unexpected Uncle	Kathleen Brown
The Devil and Daniel Webster	Mary Stone
rowspan="2" \| 1942	Four Jacks and a Jill	Karanina 'Nina' Novak
The Mayor of 44th Street	Jessey Lee
rowspan="4" \| 1943	Lady Bodyguard	A.C. Baker
The Powers Girl	Ellen Evans
Bombardier	Burton Hughes
Government Girl	May Harness Blake
rowspan="4" \| 1944	Man from Frisco	Diana Kennedy
Music in Manhattan	Frankie Foster
Murder, My Sweet	Anne Grayle	final film role

Awards and nominations

class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! Award

! Category

! Nominated work

! class="wikitable unsortable" | Result

1937

| 10th Academy Awards

| Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

| Stella Dallas

| {{nom}}

References

External links

{{IMDb name|0794297}}
[http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=&retailCheck=&Type=PN&CatID=DATABIN_CAST&ID=13979&AN_ID=17138&searchedFor=Anne_Shirley_ Anne Shirley] at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/176633%7C13979/Anne-Shirley/ Anne Shirley] at the Turner Classic Movies database
[http://www.allmovie.com/artist/anne-shirley-p65375 Anne Shirley] at AllMovie
[http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/16363/anne-shirley Anne Shirley] at Virtual History

Category:American child actresses

Category:American film actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:Deaths from lung cancer in California

Category:Actresses from New York City

Category:1918 births

Category:1993 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses