Ann Sheridan

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Ann Sheridan

from the trailer for the film Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938).
Born Clara Lou Sheridan
February 21, 1915(1915-02-21)
Denton, Texas, U.S.
Died January 21, 1967 (aged 51)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Ann Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) was an American film actress.

Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas, she was a college student 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. The red-haired beauty would soon become Warner's top sex symbol. Tagged "The Oomph Girl", Sheridan was a popular pin-up girl by the early 1940s, despite the fact the she was generally assigned films that did not show off her talents.

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), where she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Betty Field. Known for having a fine singing voice, Ann also appeared in such musicals as Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) and Shine On, Harvest Moon (1944). 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 (she was especially good in this brilliant comedy), but by the 1950s, she was struggling to find work and her film roles were sporadic.

Sheridan appeared in the television soap opera Another World during the mid-1960s, then started a role in the TV series Pistols 'n' Petticoats.

She became ill during the filming of its first season, and died from esophageal and liver cancer in Los Angeles, California. She had been a chain cigarette smoker for years; Cagney remarked in his autobiography that when the cancer struck, "she didn't have a chance." She was cremated and her ashes were stored at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles until they were permanently interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2005.[1]

Sheridan married four times, including a marriage lasting one year to fellow Warners actor, George Brent, but had no children.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Ann Sheridan has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 7024 Hollywood Boulevard.

Contents

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • In 1939, a fraternity bet inspired a UCLA student to handcuff himself to Sheridan during a movie premiere and then swallow the key, so that a locksmith had to be summoned to the theater.
  • Sheridan had a large gap between her front teeth. She always wore a porcelain cap when having her picture taken.
  • Was used as a body double (hands, legs, shoulders) while at Paramount.
  • Made a cameo in the movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. She was in Mexico at the same time the film was being shot there. As a good luck gesture, Sheridan agreed to appear in the film in an unbilled, walk-on part as a passing prostitute who looked at Dobbs (Bogart) as he left the barbershop in Tampico.
  • In Dodge City during the saloon fight, Sheridan's dress top comes off as she falls off a chair.

[edit] Filmography

  • Search for Beauty (1934)
  • Bolero (1934)
  • Come on Marines (1934)
  • Murder at the Vanities (1934)
  • Shoot the Works (1934)
  • Kiss and Make Up (1934)
  • The Notorious Sophie Lang (1934)
  • Ladies Should Listen (1934)
  • You Belong to Me (1934)
  • Wagon Wheels (1934)
  • The Lemon Drop Kid (1934)
  • Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934)
  • Ready for Love (1934)
  • Star Night at the Coconut Grove (1934) (short subject)
  • Behold My Wife (1934)
  • Limehouse Blues (1934)
  • Enter Madame (1935)
  • One Hour Late (1935)
  • Home on the Range (1935)
  • Rumba (1935)
  • Car 99 (1935)
  • Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935)
  • Mississippi (1935)
  • The Red Blood of Courage (1935)
  • The Glass Key (1935)
  • The Crusades (1935)
  • Hollywood Extra Girl (1935) (short subject)
  • Fighting Youth (1935)
  • Sing Me a Love Song (1937) (scenes deleted)
  • Black Legion (1937)
  • The Great O'Malley (1937)
  • San Quentin (1937)
  • Wine, Women, and Horses (1937)
  • The Footloose Heiress (1937)
  • Alcatraz Island (1937)
  • She Loved a Fireman (1937)
  • The Patient in Room 13 (1938)
  • Out Where the Stars Begin (1938) (short subject)
  • Mystery House (1938)
  • Little Miss Thoroughbred (1938)
  • Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938)
  • Letter of Introduction (1938)

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://classicfilm.about.com/od/classicfilmactresses/a/annshrdan20705.htm

[edit] External links

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Persondata
NAME Sheridan, Ann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sheridan, Clara Lou
SHORT DESCRIPTION actress
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Denton, Texas, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1967
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles, California, U.S.