Ann Blyth

Happy 95th Birthday to living legend Ann Blyth, captured here in an enchanting 1944 kodachrome sitting. Ann Marie Blyth was born on August 16, 1928 in Mount Kisco, New York and made her film debut in 1944 in the teen-age musical "Chip Off the Old Block" (1943). She was often cast in Hollywood musicals, but also successful in dramatic roles. For her performance as Veda in the 1945 film "Mildred Pierce", Ann was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, although it was Joan Crawford who won the Best Actress award for that film. At full-throttle as a star in the early 1950s, she transitioned easily among glossy operettas, wide-eyed comedies and all-out melodramas. When not dishing out the high dramatics of an adopted girl searching for her birth mother in "Our Very Own" (1950) or a wrongly-convicted murderess in "Thunder on the Hill" (1951), she was introducing classic standards as wife to Mario Lanza in "The Great Caruso" (1951), or playing pert and perky in such light confections as "Katie Did It" (1950). Catching Howard Keel's roving eye while costumed to the nines in "Rose Marie" (1954) and his daughter in "Kismet" (1955), she also gussied up other proceedings like "The Student Prince" (1954) and "The King's Thief" (1955). Ann ended her career on a high note, however, playing the tragic title role in the "The Helen Morgan Story (1957), having a field day as the piano-sitting, kerchief-holding, liquor-swilling torch singer whose train wreck of a personal life was destined for celluloid. Through with films, her later concentration (besides family life) was the musical stage, with dramatic TV guest appearances thrown in now and then. Ann continues to be seen occasionally at social functions and conventions. Sending you all our warmest wishes

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