Ann Blyth, who drew a 1946 Oscar nomination for her memorable efficiency because the spoiled, egocentric daughter of Joan Crawford’s hard-working, devoted title character within the traditional movie “Mildred Pierce,” died Wednesday. She was 98.
KABC’s George Pennachio reported her loss of life.
The darkish magnificence was additionally famous for her roles in jail drama “Brute Pressure” (1947), Mario Lanza car “The Nice Caruso” (1951) and 1957’s “The Helen Morgan Story” with Paul Newman.
In an interstitial recorded many a long time later for Turner Basic Motion pictures, Blyth recalled capturing “Mildred Pierce” with Crawford and declared that regardless of their characters’ fraught relationship on display screen, she and Crawford acquired alongside very properly, and it was arduous for her to slap Crawford for one of many film’s pivotal scenes.
Crawford received the most effective actress Oscar for “Mildred Pierce,” which was additionally nominated for finest image, amongst different classes.
“Mildred Pierce,” based mostly on the James M. Cain novel, was remade by Todd Haynes as an HBO miniseries in 2011 that starred Kate Winslet, with Evan Rachel Wooden taking part in the ungrateful daughter Veda.
Whereas briefly on trip from filming “Hazard Sign,” in 1945, Blyth broke her again in a sledding accident, and he or she spent a 12 months and a half convalescing in a again brace, after which Common used her within the glorious jail drama “Brute Pressure,” starring Burt Lancaster, whereas she was nonetheless confined to a wheelchair. After she recovered, Common gave Blyth her first starring function in “Swell Man.” She additionally starred reverse Mickey Rooney within the movie noir “Killer McCoy.”
The actress had an fascinating and difficult function in 1948’s “One other A part of the Forest,” a prequel to Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” during which she performed a youthful model of the Regina Hubard character immortalized on movie by Bette Davis.
In 1950 melodrama “Our Very Personal,” she performed an adopted baby trying to find her start mom, and Blyth performed a lady wrongly convicted of homicide in “Thunder on the Hill.” She was spouse to Mario Lanza’s Enrico Caruso in 1951’s “The Nice Caruso,” and he or she additionally appeared in lighter fare equivalent to “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid” and “Katie Did It.” In 1952 she starred reverse Gregory Peck in “The World in His Arms,” her final movie for Common.
At MGM she appeared in a sequence of operettas, together with “Kismet,” however the period of the grand movie musicals was ending, and he or she was not the one star whose profession suffered because of this.
Going out on a excessive word, she performed the tragic title character in 1957’s “The Helen Morgan Story,” about an alcoholic torch singer; unusually, her singing voice was dubbed.
Ann Marie Blyth was born in Mount Kisco, New York. She was younger when her mother and father break up, and her mom moved Blyth and her sister to New York Metropolis.
For a time aiming for an opera profession, Blyth educated with the San Carlo Opera Firm.
She made her single Broadway look within the unique manufacturing of Lillian Hellman’s WWII drama “Watch on the Rhine” in 1941-42. She toured with the present in Los Angeles, the place she was seen and given a display screen take a look at at Common.
The younger actress made her massive display screen debut in 1944’s swing-era teen musical “Chip Off the Block,” a B musical starring Donald O’Connor during which she acquired to point out off her pipes. Roles in related fare adopted: “The Merry Monahans” and “Babes on Swing Road,” additionally 1944 movies. However she didn’t actually get seen till her function in Warner Bros.’ “Mildred Pierce” in 1945.
The religious Catholic targeted on household after her movie profession primarily resulted in 1957 in addition to musical theater, showing in “The Sound of Music,” “The King and I,” “Carnival,” “Bittersweet,” “South Pacific,” “Present Boat” and “A Little Night time Music.”
Blyth had began making occasional appearances on tv within the Fifties, showing, for instance, in a “Lux Video Theatre” adaptation of “A Place within the Solar” in 1954, on “The DuPont Present With June Allyson” in 1959 and “The Dick Powell Theatre” in 1962. She made a number of appearances on the TV Western “Wagon Prepare” within the early Nineteen Sixties and starred within the “Queen of the Nile” episode of “Twilight Zone” in 1964. Later she appeared a few occasions on “Quincy, M.E.” earlier than her ultimate tv look on “Homicide, She Wrote” in 1985.
The actress was married to Dr. James McNulty from 1953 till his loss of life in 2007. They’d 5 youngsters, 10 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.
