Ann Sheridan
Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person
Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films San Quentin (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) with James Cagney and Bogart, They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, City for Conquest (1940) with Cagney and Elia Kazan, The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, Kings Row (1942) with Ronald Reagan, Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949) with Cary Grant.
Early lifeEdit
Clara Lou Sheridan was born in Denton, Texas, on February 21, 1915, the youngest of five children (Kitty, Pauline, Mabel, and George) of garage mechanic<ref>The Women of Warner Brothers, Daniel Bubbeo, McFarland, Inc. Publishers, 2010, p. 191</ref><ref>Life, vol. 7, issue 4, 24 July 1939, p. 66</ref> George W. Sheridan and Lula Stewart (née Warren).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> According to Sheridan, her father was a grandnephew of Civil War Union general Philip Sheridan.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
She was active in dramatics at Denton High School and at North Texas State Teachers College. She also sang with the college's stage band and played basketball on the North Texas women's basketball team.<ref name="a">Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> Then, in 1933, Sheridan won the prize of a bit part in an upcoming Paramount film, Search for Beauty,<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> when her sister Kitty entered Sheridan's photograph into a beauty contest.<ref name="LAT67"/>
CareerEdit
ParamountEdit
After the release of Search for Beauty in 1934, Paramount put the 19-year-old under contract at a starting salary of $75 a week (Template:InflationTemplate:Citation needed), where she played mostly uncredited bit parts for the next two years.<ref name="trib">Template:Cite news</ref> She can be glimpsed in the following 1934 films, and if credited, as Clara Lou Sheridan: Template:Film year, Come On Marines!, Murder at the Vanities, Template:Film year, Kiss and Make-Up with Cary Grant, The Notorious Sophie Lang, College Rhythm (directed by Norman Taurog whom Sheridan admired), Ladies Should Listen with Cary Grant, Template:Film year, Template:Film year, Template:Film year with Lee Tracy, Template:Film year, Template:Film year, Template:Film year with George Raft and Anna May Wong, and One Hour Late.
Along with fellow contractees, Sheridan worked with Paramount's drama coach Nina Moise and performed on the studio lot in such plays as The Milky Way and The Pursuit of Happiness. While in The Milky Way, Paramount decided to change her first name from Clara Lou to the same as her character Ann.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Sheridan was then cast in the film Template:Film show year at the behest of director and friend Mitchell Leisen. The role provided two standout scenes for the actress, including one in which her character commits suicide, to which she attributed Paramount's keeping her under contract.<ref name="Hagen p 172">Hagen p. 172</ref>
She continued with bit parts in Template:Film show year with Elissa Landi and Cary Grant, Template:Film show year with Randolph Scott and Evelyn Brent, and Template:Film show year with George Raft and Carole Lombard, until her first lead role in Car 99 (1935), with Fred MacMurray.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> "No acting, it was just playing the lead, that's all", she later said.<ref name="Hagen p 172"/> She next had a support role as the romantic interest in Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935), a Randolph Scott Western.
She then appeared in Template:Film show year with Bing Crosby and W. C. Fields, Template:Film show year with George Raft in a brief speaking role for which she was billed as "Nurse" in the cast list at the end of the film, and (having one line) Template:Film show year with Loretta Young. In her last picture under her deal with Paramount, the studio loaned her out to Poverty Row production company Talisman to make The Red Blood of Courage (1935) with Kermit Maynard. After this, Paramount declined to renew her contract.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sheridan made Fighting Youth (1935) at Universal and then signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1936.
Warner Bros.Edit
Sheridan's career prospects began to improve at her new studio. Her early films for Warner Bros. included Sing Me a Love Song (1936); Template:Film show year with Humphrey Bogart; The Great O'Malley (1937) with Pat O'Brien and Bogart, her first real break;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:Film show year, with O'Brien and Bogart, singing for the first time in a film; and Wine, Women and Horses (1937) with Barton MacLane.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Sheridan moved into B picture leads: The Footloose Heiress (1937); Template:Film show year with John Litel; and She Loved a Fireman (1937) with Dick Foran for director John Farrow. She was a lead in Template:Film show year and its sequel Template:Film show year. Sheridan was in Little Miss Thoroughbred (1938) with Litel for Farrow and supported Dick Powell in Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938).<ref>"Ann Sheridan, Ex-Film Queen" The Washington Post and Times-Herald 23 Jan 1967: B3.</ref>
Universal borrowed her for a support role in Template:Film show year at the behest of director John M. Stahl. For Farrow, she was in Broadway Musketeers (1938), a remake of Three on a Match (1932).
Sheridan's notices in Letter of Introduction impressed Warner Bros. executives and she began to get roles in better quality pictures at her own studio starting with Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), wherein she played James Cagney's love interest; Bogart, O'Brien and the Dead End Kids had supporting roles. The film was a big hit and critically acclaimed.
Sheridan was reunited with the Dead End Kids in They Made Me a Criminal (1938) starring John Garfield. She was third-billed in the Western Template:Film show year, playing a saloon owner opposite Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film was another success.
Oomph girlEdit
In March 1939, Warner Bros. announced Sheridan had been voted by a committee of 25 men as the actress with the most "oomph" in America.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> "Oomph" was described as "a certain indefinable something that commands male interest".<ref name=":0" />
She received as many as 250 marriage proposals from fans in a single week.<ref>"Everybody Wants to Marry Annie", AP, May 25, 1941. Accessed June 2, 2009.</ref> Sheridan reportedly loathed the sobriquet that made her a popular pin-up girl in the early 1940s.<ref>"Ann Sheridan, Actress, Born Clara Lou Sheridan on Feb. 21, 1915 in Denton, Texas, Died Jan. 21, 1967 of cancer in Los Angeles, California", by Paul Houston, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1967</ref><ref>"When a Woman Could Be an Oomph Girl", by Art Rogoff, The New York Times, September 12, 1988.</ref><ref>"The Oomph Girl" Template:Webarchive, Classic Cinema Gold, February 21, 2012</ref> However, she expressed in a February 25, 1940, news story distributed by the Associated Press that she no longer "bemoaned the "oomph" tag."<ref name=ose>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> She continued, "But I'm sorry now. I know if it hadn't been for 'oomph' I'd probably still be in the chorus."<ref name="ose" />
This was later referenced and spoofed on the 1941 animated short Hollywood Steps Out.<ref>The 90 Best Classic "Looney Tunes " Cartoons - Vulture</ref>
StardomEdit
Sheridan co-starred with Dick Powell in Template:Film show year and played a wacky heiress in Template:Film show year.
She was top billed in Template:Film show year with O'Brien and Angels Wash Their Faces (1939) with the Dead End Kids and Ronald Reagan. Castle on the Hudson (1940) put her opposite Garfield and O'Brien.
Sheridan's first real starring vehicle was It All Came True (1940), a musical comedy costarring Bogart and Jeffrey Lynn. She introduced the song "Angel in Disguise".
Sheridan and Cagney were reunited in Torrid Zone (1940) with O'Brien in support. She was with George Raft, Bogart and Ida Lupino in They Drive by Night (1940), a smash-hit trucking melodrama. Sheridan was back with Cagney for City for Conquest (1941) and then made Template:Film show year, a comedy with George Brent.
Sheridan did two lighter films: Template:Film show year, a musical comedy, and Template:Film show year with Bette Davis, wherein she played a character modeled on Gertrude Lawrence. She then made Kings Row (1942), in which she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Betty Field. It was a major success and one of Sheridan's most memorable films.
Sheridan and Reagan were reunited for Juke Girl (1942) released about six weeks after Kings Row. She was in the war film Wings for the Eagle (1942) and made a comedy with Jack Benny, George Washington Slept Here (1943). She played a Norwegian resistance fighter in Template:Film show year with Errol Flynn and was one of the many Warner Bros. stars who had cameos in Template:Film show year.
She was the heroine of a novel, Ann Sheridan and the Sign of the Sphinx, written by Kathryn Heisenfelt and published by Whitman Publishing Company in 1943. While the heroine of the story was identified as a famous actress, the stories were entirely fictitious. The story was probably written for a young teenaged audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941 and 1947 that always featured a film actress as heroine.<ref>Whitman Authorized Editions for Girls</ref>
Sheridan was given the lead in the musical Template:Film show year, playing Nora Bayes, opposite Dennis Morgan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was in a comedy, The Doughgirls (1944).
Sheridan was absent from screens for over a year, touring with the USO to perform in front of the troops as far afield as China.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She returned in Template:Film show year with Morgan. She had an excellent role in the noir Nora Prentiss (1947), which was a hit. It was followed by Template:Film year (1948), a remake of Template:Film year, and Template:Film show year, a Western melodrama with Errol Flynn.
Leo McCarey borrowed her to support Gary Cooper in Template:Film show year. She was meant to star in Template:Film year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She then left Warner Bros., saying: "I wasn't at all satisfied with the scripts they offered me."<ref name="risk">Template:Cite news</ref>
Freelance starEdit
Her role in I Was a Male War Bride (1949), directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant, was another success. In 1950, she appeared on the ABC musical television series Stop the Music.
She made Template:Film show year, a comedy with Victor Mature at Fox.
In April 1949, she announced she wanted to produce Second Lady, a film based on a story by Eleanore Griffin.<ref name="risk"/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> She was going to make My Forbidden Past (originally titled Carriage Entrance) at RKO.<ref name="risk"/> They fired her and Sheridan sued for $250,000 (equivalent to $Template:Inflation million today)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The New York Times reported the amount as $350,000 ($Template:Inflation million today).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sheridan ultimately won $55,162 ($Template:Inflation today).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
UniversalEdit
Sheridan made Woman on the Run (1950), a noir also starring Dennis O'Keefe which she produced. She wanted to make a film called Her Secret Diary.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Woman on the Run was distributed by Universal, and Sheridan signed a contract with that studio. While there, she made Template:Film show year, Just Across the Street (1952), and Take Me to Town (1953), a comedy with Sterling Hayden that was the first film directed by Douglas Sirk in the United States.
Later careerEdit
Sheridan starred with Glenn Ford in Appointment in Honduras (1953), directed by Jacques Tourneur. She appeared opposite Steve Cochran in Come Next Spring (1956) and was one of several stars in MGM's The Opposite Sex (1956), a remake of Template:Film year starring June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Gray, Sheridan and Ann Miller. Her last film, Woman and the Hunter (1957), was shot in Africa.<ref name="soap">Template:Cite news</ref>
She performed in stage tours of Kind Sir (1958) and Odd Man In (1959), and The Time of Your Life at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. In all three shows, she acted with Scott McKay, whom she later married.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1962, she played the lead in the Western series Wagon Train episode titled "The Mavis Grant Story".
In the mid-1960s, Sheridan appeared on the NBC soap opera Another World.<ref name="soap"/>
Her final role was as Henrietta Hanks in the television comedy Western series Pistols 'n' Petticoats, which was filmed while she became increasingly ill in 1966, and was broadcast on CBS on Saturday nights.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The 19th episode of the series, "Beware the Hangman", aired as scheduled on the same day that she died in 1967.<ref>"Pistols and Petticoats", in Single Season Sitcoms, 1948–1979: A Complete Guide, by Bob Leszczak (McFarland, 2012) p. 155</ref>
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Ann Sheridan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7024 Hollywood Boulevard.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
Sheridan married actor Edward Norris August 16, 1936, in Ensenada, Mexico.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> They separated a year later and divorced in 1939. On January 5, 1942, she married fellow Warner Bros. star George Brent, who co-starred with her in Honeymoon for Three (1941); they divorced exactly one year later. Following her divorce from Brent, she had a long-term relationship with publicist Steve Hannagan that lasted until his death in 1953. Hannagan bequeathed Sheridan $218,399 (equivalent to $Template:Inflation million today).<ref>May 7, 1956; Stephen J Hannagan Will; File No. P 440/1953; Surrogates Court in the County of New York; Hall of Records.</ref>
Sheridan engaged in a romantic affair with Mexican actor Rodolfo Acosta, with whom she appeared in 1953's Appointment in Honduras. She and the married Acosta shared an apartment in Mexico City for several years, and Sheridan was charged with criminal adultery in Mexican federal court in October, 1956, following an accusation by Acosta's wife, Jeanine Cohen Acosta. Mexican authorities issued a warrant for Sheridan's arrest.<ref>"Actress Named in Adultery Action," San Pedro News-Pilot, November 1, 1956, p. 1.</ref><ref>"Vet Actress Charged in Affair," Durham Sun, December 13, 1956, p. 23</ref> Nothing came of the criminal charges, and the relationship ended c. 1958.Template:Citation needed
On June 5, 1966, Sheridan married actor Scott McKay, who was with her when she died seven months later.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="LAT67">Template:Cite news</ref>
Sheridan supported Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential elections.<ref name=Thomas>Template:Cite news</ref>
DeathEdit
In 1966, Sheridan began starring in a new television series, a Western-themed comedy called Pistols 'n' Petticoats. She became ill during the filming and died of esophageal cancer<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with massive liver metastases, at age 51 on January 21, 1967, in Los Angeles. She was cremated and her ashes were interred in the private vault at Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles until they were reinterred in a niche in the Chapel Columbarium at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2005.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
BiographyEdit
Michael D. Rinella, Ann Sheridan - The Life and Career of Hollywood's Oomph Girl (McFarland Publishers, 2024)
FilmographyEdit
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | Search for Beauty | Dallas Beauty Winner | uncredited |
| 1934 | Bolero | Minor Role | uncredited |
| 1934 | Come On Marines! | Loretta | |
| 1934 | Murder at the Vanities | Earl Carroll Girl | uncredited |
| 1934 | Many Happy Returns | Chorine | uncredited |
| 1934 | Shoot the Works | Hanratty's Secretary | uncredited |
| 1934 | Kiss and Make Up | Beautician | |
| 1934 | The Notorious Sophie Lang | Mannequin | uncredited |
| 1934 | Ladies Should Listen | Adele | |
| 1934 | You Belong to Me | Wedding Party Guest | uncredited |
| 1934 | Wagon Wheels | Young Lady | uncredited |
| 1934 | The Lemon Drop Kid | Minor Role | uncredited |
| 1934 | Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch | Town Girl | uncredited |
| 1934 | College Rhythm | Chorine / Gloves Salesgirl | uncredited |
| 1934 | Ready for Love | Priscilla at Basket Social | uncredited |
| 1934 | Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove | Sands of the Desert Model | Short; uncredited |
| 1934 | Behold My Wife | Mary White | |
| 1934 | Limehouse Blues | Minor Role | uncredited |
| 1934 | One Hour Late | Girl | uncredited |
| 1935 | Enter Madame | Flora's Shipboard Friend | |
| 1935 | Home on the Range | Singer | |
| 1935 | Rumba | Chorus Girl | uncredited |
| 1935 | Car 99 | Mary Adams | |
| 1935 | Rocky Mountain Mystery | Rita Ballard | |
| 1935 | Mississippi | Schoolgirl | uncredited |
| 1935 | Red Blood of Courage | Elizabeth Henry | |
| 1935 | The Glass Key | Nurse | |
| 1935 | The Crusades | Christian Slave Girl | uncredited |
| 1935 | Hollywood Extra Girl | Genevieve | Documentary short |
| 1935 | Fighting Youth | Carol Arlington | |
| 1937 | Sing Me a Love Song | ||
| 1937 | Black Legion | Betty Grogan | |
| 1937 | The Great O'Malley | Judy Nolan | |
| 1937 | San Quentin | May Kennedy aka May De Villiers | |
| 1937 | The Footloose Heiress | Kay Allyn | |
| 1937 | Wine, Women and Horses | Valerie | |
| 1937 | Alcatraz Island | Flo Allen | |
| 1937 | She Loved a Fireman | Marjorie "Margie" Shannon | |
| 1938 | The Patient in Room 18 | Sarah Keate | |
| 1938 | Mystery House | Sarah Keate | |
| 1938 | Out Where the Stars Begin | Herself | Short; uncredited |
| 1938 | Little Miss Thoroughbred | Madge Perry Morgan | |
| 1938 | Cowboy from Brooklyn | Maxine Chadwick | |
| 1938 | Letter of Introduction | Lydia Hoyt | |
| 1938 | Broadway Musketeers | Fay Reynolds Dowling | |
| 1938 | Angels with Dirty Faces | Laury Martin | |
| 1939 | They Made Me a Criminal | Goldie | |
| 1939 | Dodge City | Ruby Gilman | |
| 1939 | Naughty but Nice | Zelda Manion | |
| 1939 | Indianapolis Speedway | "Frankie" Merrick | |
| 1939 | Winter Carnival | Jill Baxter | |
| 1939 | The Angels Wash Their Faces | Joy Ryan | |
| 1940 | Castle on the Hudson | Kay | |
| 1940 | It All Came True | Sarah Jane Ryan | |
| 1940 | Torrid Zone | Lee Donley | |
| 1940 | They Drive by Night | Cassie Hartley | |
| 1940 | City for Conquest | Peggy Nash | |
| 1941 | Honeymoon for Three | Anne Rogers | |
| 1941 | Navy Blues | Marge Jordan | |
| 1942 | The Man Who Came to Dinner | Lorraine Sheldon | |
| 1942 | Kings Row | Randy Monaghan | |
| 1942 | Juke Girl | Lola Mears | |
| 1942 | Wings for the Eagle | Roma Maple | |
| 1942 | George Washington Slept Here | Connie Fuller | |
| 1943 | Edge of Darkness | Karen Stensgard | |
| 1943 | Thank Your Lucky Stars | Ann Sheridan | |
| 1944 | Shine On, Harvest Moon | Nora Bayes | |
| 1944 | The Doughgirls | Edna Stokes Cadman | |
| 1946 | Cinderella Jones | Red Cross Nurse | uncredited |
| 1946 | One More Tomorrow | Christie Sage | |
| 1947 | The Unfaithful | Chris Hunter | |
| 1947 | Nora Prentiss | Nora Prentiss | |
| 1948 | Silver River | Georgia Moore | |
| 1948 | Good Sam | Lu Clayton | |
| 1949 | I Was a Male War Bride | 1st Lt. Catherine Gates | |
| 1950 | Stella | Stella Bevans | |
| 1950 | Woman on the Run | Eleanor Johnson | also co-producer |
| 1952 | Steel Town | "Red" McNamara | |
| 1952 | Just Across the Street | Henrietta Smith | |
| 1953 | Take Me to Town | Vermilion O'Toole aka Mae Madison | |
| 1953 | Appointment in Honduras | Sylvia Sheppard | |
| 1956 | Come Next Spring | Bess Ballot | |
| 1956 | Sneak Preview | Terry Conway | TV series Episode: "Calling Terry Conway" |
| 1956 | The Opposite Sex | Amanda Penrose | |
| 1957 | Woman and the Hunter | Laura Dodds | |
| 1962 | Wagon Train | Mavis Grant | TV series Episode: "The Mavis Grant Story" |
| 1967 | The Far Out West | Henrietta "Hank" Hanks | archive footage |
Radio appearancesEdit
| Year | Program | Episode | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 | Screen Guild Players | Love Is News | <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> |
| 1952 | Stars in the Air | Good Sam | <ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> |
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0792130
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